Rapunzel had woken up that morning filled with hope and happiness. Yes, her body had killed her children- but something greater than her had replaced that small human being into the body of Mel, and so meeting Mel meant meeting her child and meeting her future.

Rapunzel had her hopes up for someone a bit more...fairytale like, but there was nothing about Mel with which the Princess of Corona could find a problem. Eugene had told her every thing he knew about her, and Rapunzel had asked millions of questions of her own, sheltered under Eugene's warm arm.

The meeting itself ended as they all knew it would; Rapunzel wanted that baby, Mel wanted to give it to them, and so they agreed to provide Mel with everything she could possibily need. The married couple gave her a room in their quarters, and the King and Queen adopted the once-hoodlum into their family. After all, theives were not exactly a surprise to them at this point. Rapunzel attracted them.

The first day it became very real was the day Mel felt the baby kick her.

For three months now she had been living beneath the palace roof, gaining weight that was very much needed and being treated like another princess. She had woken up to birds chirping to the tune Rapunzel was humming as she decorated the nursery. Her body was thicker and healthier than it had ever been in her life, and so she stretched and felt everything awaken with a smile. The sheets were soft, her mind was relaxed and she was finally in a place where she felt happy.

And then something sent an odd pointed pushing sensation through her abdomen, causing her to gasp and clutch her belly. It was already swelling, and she was getting to the point where she could only see her toes when she looked straight down. She was five months along, and so she was starting to get bigger and bigger, half of that actual weight and half of it her uterus expanding and creating a human being.

A human being that had just kicked her.

"Rapunzel! Rapunzel!" Mel scrambled out of bed, grabbing a fluffy robe to cover up her arms and back before running to the room next door. The brunette came running, and almost collided with her little surrogate, before Mel grabbed her by the shoulders.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I am okay, the baby is okay, but feel it, feel it!"

Mel was panting as she grabbed Rapunzel's hand, resting it on her stomach, the robe having been pushed aside in the excitement. The baby kicked again, and Rapunzel dropped to her knees, seeming to forget that she was now pressing her cheek to Mel's stomach, hearing the baby's heartbeat and then feeling the kicks and shivering. Those big green eyes looked up at Mel filled with tears, and Rapunzel stood up, moving to hug Mel in one of the furious hugs for which she was famous.

Mel had a family now, and it consisted of the royalty of Corona. She was growing the continuation of that family within her, and that baby would be the thing to seal the deal. She would never have to eat from the garbage again, especially after the birth. Never again would she have to worry about her existence after the birth.

At six months along, she could not see her feet and the baby was keeping her up to all hours with its incessant kicking. This meant that Rapunzel had declared a girls' quarters in which they both slept every night. The older brunette fussed around Mel like-well, like a mother over her child. All of the books said that she was far too big for the week she was in, and what could that mean but that Rapunzel was really meant not to have children, because there had to be something wrong, right? Flynn comforted his wife before she went to bed every night, because she was not sleeping much, consumed with worry about Mel and worry about the baby and worry about the future of the Fitzherbert family.

The kicking had gotten worse because there were three pairs of legs kicking at the inside of Mel. It was triplets.

Rapunzel fainted when the doctor told her. Flynn picked her up, tears in his eyes as he thanked the doctor profusely, kissed the top of Mel's head and carried his wife to their bedroom. A servant stayed with her as he hurried back to the pregnant woman's side, who had just been informed that she was not allowed to leave a bed save for using the bathroom for the next three months.

For a girl who had lived her entire life under a leaky roof or in a drafty room, there was nothing that sounded more sweet.

Bed rest ended up being the most nerve-wracking experience of her life. She could only sleep on her side, but the babies would shift halfway through the night and so cause her to be one-side heavy, making it very hard to get up in the morning. She grew chubby, unable to move, but she grew increasingly skillful. She learned to knit and crotchet, sew and embroider, then Flynn spent a full month teaching her how to whittle. She practiced for an hour every day after that, finally able to make four little wooden creatures- two girls and two boys. She was not quite sure how many girls versus how many boys were growing with her, because Rapunzel had asked it to be a secret. And so, as Rapunzel's children grew within her, she decided to make enough so that they could pick and choose which were correct, in the end.

The nursery was flourishing in varying shades of maroon, brown, and grey, all of the colors coming together to make the warmest nursery in which Mel had ever step foot. Flynn had moved his two cribs into the proper place and had a third one completed in no time. It was a perfect combination of the two, a crib made of pandeemia wood, the same lines drawn in the wood as in the other two, but the wood a perfect marble blend of the deepest brown and the sweetest of white. Each one had a father's love in its crafting, and so it was perfect. Mel had only seen photos- Rapunzel would not even allow her the fifteen step walk from here to the nursery.

When her ninth month came about, every step hurt. Her feet swelled to the point of no return, and two of the Snuggly Duckling men had to carry her from her room, now cluttered with all sorts of mindless crafts, to the delivery suite, a bed with an on-call doctor sleeping in the next room, with all of the medical supplies ever imagined. She slept there until she awoke one morning to the feeling of being torn into shreds from her stomach up.

There was blood everywhere, and somewhere deep inside her, she knew it was her own.