A/N: Since the story will probably have 20 chapters, we're right in the middle of it. I'm not so sure about this chapter, but somehow Jean and Rapunzel had to get to know each other better. So, this is how it turned out. Hope you like it! :)

Also, thanks to lv4eva and RomanianPrincess for their reviews and to everyone for the follows and the favs, it's really awesome to see people like my story :D

Jean glanced behind her shoulder at Rapunzel, who obviously was very tired, but hadn't protested at all. They'd stopped just once, at dawn, to get some rest, since the night before, and it almost was lunchtime. She was truly impressed by the way the Princess had kept up with her rythm, since she'd have never imagined a member of the royal family would be so resistent, them being used to having all those servants. True, the Princess hadn't lived in the palace most of her life, since she'd been kidnapped when she was just a baby and the kingdom had almost lost hope in finding her, or at least that was what she'd heard. She wondered why so many people were intrested in her. Both whoever had sneaked into the castle of Corona years earlier and Conall had kidnapped her, but, to be honest, Jean didn't really know why. Conall had just said that he had a deal to discuss with the Princess, when he'd asked the reason behind her assignment, and she'd been ok with that very general answer, not wanting to pressure her boss, with the risk of making him angry. Only afterwards had she started questioning Conall's reasons, but never out loud, for the same reason she hadn't asked for more explanations earlier.

So, there she was, running away from Conall along with a Princess who seemed to be of intrest to many and whom she'd previously kidnapped without knowing exactly why she was doing so. She spun around to face Rapunzel and said "Why don't we stop and get some rest? I don't think it'll hurt"

"Yeah, that would be great" smiled Rapunzel, immadiatly sinking to the ground. She was exhausted, even though she'd done her best to hide it as long as she could. Jean sat down next to her and got some cheese and bread out of her bag, along with a handful of berries she'd picked up along the way.

"Do you think they'll find us?" Rapunzel asked, between a bite and the other.

"I hope not" replied Jean. then she explained what her idea of the situation was "We've been going south, towards Corona, since this morning, at about three AM. Conall will probably have noticed our absence by now, and his men surely are on our trail. They have horses, but we have at least a seven-hour advantage. I don't know if we'll make it, but the sooner we get back traveling, the sooner we reach the capital". Rapunzel nodded, it made perfect sense.

"Sorry for slowing you down" she apologized afterwards, having noticed how tireless Jean was. Since they hadn't talked all that much during their journey, she'd had plenty of time to wonder how she'd become so trained. She hadn't come up with a really good theory, though.

"Don't worry about it, you're actually way better than I'd have expected" Jean reassured her. There were a few moments of silence, then she decided it was time to find out what made the Princess so special.

"Why did Conall want you locked in that tower?" she asked, hoping the Princess would answer her question.

"Oh, it's.. it's a long story" she mumbled, trying to decide if she could trust Jean with her secret or not. After all, that woman had saved her from a life in the tower, so she did kind of have the right to know what made her help necessary.

"I can trust you, right?" she asked, before she made up her mind. When Jean nodded, she made her choice and took a deep breath, getting ready to tell the story of her life for the third time, after having told it to Eugene and her parents.

She told Jean everything: from how the flower had saved the Queen while she was pregnant with her to how Gothel had locked her up in the tower to make sure she'd be the only one able to use the magic that was imprisoned in her hair; from her dream to see the lanterns to how Eugene had made it come true, almost paying the price with his life, and how her last drop of magic had healed him, giving them the chance to live 'happily ever after'. Jean listened without interrupting, as every word made her want to sink deep under the ground and disappear, along with all her shame. She wished she'd never asked to explain Rapunzel why she was so precious to Conall, so that she wouldn't be feeling so despicable. Rapunzel had trusted her with her most guarded secret, while she'd been lying to her since she'd opened the door of the tower the day before (in other words, from the moment she'd met her).

When Rapunzel finished telling her story, Jean truly had no idea what to say. That she was sorry for all that had happened to her? It would just make her even more hypocrite than she already was. So she placed her hand above the Princess's, in the attempt to comfort her. Then she gathered up all her courage and got ready, because her turn in that sort of stroy-telling game her question had set in motion was about to come.

"You know, I have something to tell you as well" she begun, hoping she wouldn't regret it. She paused for a moment, then went on " The story I told you in the tower.. It's not the whole version. It's true, I did become one of Conall's servants, the only woman, that is, but things have changed between when I arrived and now"

"What do you mean?" Rapunzel was really confused. She didn't understand what Jean meant, but she hoped it wasn't something bad. Even at the castle, she'd never really had a real friend, and she'd started seeing Jean as one. She admired her courage and how independent she was, even though she wasn't all that powerful.

"I'm not a servant." Jean explained, before she begun telling the part of her story that she'd kept hidden from the Princess "One day, I was practicing with my bow in the gardens, during one of the rare free moments I managed to spare for myself, and Conall saw me. He asked me where had I learnt to use a bow, and asked me to do some simple excercises. After that, he thought he might as well give me the chance to see if I could manage being in his troops. That's how my soldier career begun. At first, all other soldiers made fun of me, because I'm a woman, but soon Conall assigned me a higher rank, and his men begun hating me. To them the idea of a woman trying to get high in the army ranks was a total utopia, and they couldn't stand it." she said. She paused for a moment, and when she saw Rapunzel was about to speak she interrupted her "It's not over, yet. I kept on getting to higher and higher ranks, and, to tell you the truth, I didn't even really care. I didn't like Conall's men: the only thing they seemed to be good at was hating on me, without even bothering to prove they were worth more than I was. The highest rank I could get to was becoming Conall's most trusted captain, but I somehow managed to get higher even than that. I became his most trusted spy. That happened a few months ago, and my first mission was..." she paused and took a breath,bthe hard part was coming "It was to spy on you. To see what you ususally did, and what your life was like. To learn which rooms of the castle you visited more frequently and where they were situated. I didn't even know why exactly I was doing it, I just knew I had to follow the orders. And so I did, until Conall said it was time to get ready to kidnap you. I thought 'Fine, I'll do this and then run away in the woods, leaving all of this behind me'. So the other night I sneaked into the castle and hit both you and your husband with a frying pan I found in your bedroom, to make sure neither of you woke up, and brought you to Caonall's palace. It's my fault if all of this happened. And then I decided I'd look after you, in the attempt to fix things a bit. But it didn't work, and I realized the only way to get things even was to make you escape." she paused again, but this time Rapunzel didn't move at all, her eyes fixed on her, while all of that sank in.

"I'm sorry. For everything. For spying on you, for kidnapping you, and for telling you a bunch of lies. I thought Conall would've freed you soon, or that's what I told myself, so that I wouldn't feel too guilty. But, it didn't work, so here we are. I'm sorry.." she said, and her voice was as sincere as Rapunzel had never heard it before. But, she didn't know what to believe anymore. By making her escape, Jean had proven to be a valuable ally, and maybe a friend as well, but it was her fault if she wasn't at the castle with Eugene right then. Plus, this might be another lie, some sort of wicked plan Conall had come up with. She really didn't know what to expect from that man: he seemed pleased whenever he noticed one's world was crumbling around him. even though Jean's words seemed to be coming from her heart, how could she trust her, now that she knew what her role had been for all that time?

Rapunzel rubbed a hand across her forehead, in the desperate attempt to put all the thigs swirling around in her brain in some sort of order. Obviously, it didn't work, and she wondered why the human brain had to be such a mess most of the time. She closed her eyes, and thought for a few seconds, then she said "Jean, I trust you. You got me out of that tower, and I doubt you did that because Conall asked you to do so. This means you don't like following his orders, and you probably did what you had to just because you saw no other way out. You were brave enough to accept your errors and try to make thigs right, and that is a really difficult thing to do. I told you my story, and I don't regret it, because I think you'll keep the secret. I think I can trust you. And not just because you got me out of that tower, but because of the way you did it, careless of the concequences as only a person who's following her heart can be. I know I probably sound like an old granny who's trying to read your soul and, possibly, give you life lessons, but what I'm actually trying to say is:'I forgive you'" she smiled warmly. Jean couldn't believe her ears "But.."

"You did the right thing, in the end, and that's enough" said the Princess, not admitting a reply. Jean smiled as well, since she didn't know how to thank her. She'd have expected anything, any reaction, but the one the Princess had had. She didn't know how she managed to forgive her, after all she'd done, but she knew she'd never stop owing her for that.