~ Rapunzel Goes Home (extended edition)

~ Chapter 025

~ The King Visits the Prison

King Leonard entered the prison. He didn't have to come here very often, but this was something he wanted, no, needed to take care of himself.

He was so excited to have his daughter home that he wasn't sure that he could sleep anyway. He felt so different now that she was home. He'd get a few crucial things done now while she slept, so they could have more time together in the morning.

It was going to be busy and he ached to spend as much time with her as possible.

Prisons were designed to be hard, brooding places. People could and would do terrible things to each other and while he tried to be fair, just and merciful, some people needed punishment to get the point. A very few couldn't seem to ever get the point at all. Still they tried to keep it clean and afford them some dignity, but it still smelled like a prison.

He had two things to do here tonight, he looked forward to both of them, but in very different ways.

The King and his entourage stopped in front of HookHand's cell. He was lying on a thin pallet. He was not asleep.

"I didn't expect to see you down here, sire." said HookHand, not bothering to get up. He had come to accept the fact he would never leave this place. Hopefully some of the others would, Attila should have his shot at his bakery, he was going to miss those cupcakes. At least the blonde girl was safe, he trusted the king to keep his word.

"Well, it does make you easy to find," said the king with a wry smile.

HookHand's eyes narrowed, did the king just make a joke. Something very strange is going on here.

"I am sorry about rousting you out in the middle of the night for an interrogation." HookHand looked around, what is going on here, did the king just apologize?

"I'd also like to thank you for your honesty up there. Maximus even corroborated your story. That meant a lot, because something very important was going on. Your involvement was peripheral to what happened and I needed the truth just then."

"And what was this important thing?" Hookhand was barely wondering what was going on. They had just tried to save a girl.

"The return of my daughter, the Lost Princess."

HookHand's eyebrows nearly lifted off the top of his head as he sat up. "What?"

"The blonde girl you met at the Snuggly Duckling and confessed your deepest dreams too. The girl you broke Flynn Rider out of this prison for, on the word of a horse." The King smiled at that and so did HookHand.

"Was my daughter."

Hope broke over HookHand like a wave. "Really, she's the Lost Princess?"

"She's not lost anymore, thanks to your help. I want to thank you for being honest with us up there. Having a girl in the company of Flynn Rider claiming to be the Lost Princess didn't exactly inspire trust in either of them."

HookHand barked a short laugh at that.

"Thank you for helping bring her home." The king said sincerely.

"You're welcome, sire. Um. Can we go home now?" Hookhand tried not to look too hopeful.

The King cocked his head at him. "Of course you can, but it is rather late to start out though, and wouldn't you rather stay for the celebration, you and the others are going to be Honored Guests."

HookHand had no idea how to acknowledge an invitation like that. "Um."

"There'll be a piano." King Leonard offered.

"We'll be there," announced HookHand.

Rapunzel's father smiled, "Good, tomorrow morning I'll be making the big announcement and officially releasing you and the others. I hope you don't mind waiting, you're invited to stay at the palace tomorrow night and for as long as the celebration lasts. Here is some extra bedding to make up for the wait."

The King gestured and a servant came up with folded blankets and a pillow. There were more for the others.

"Oh, and you'll need this." King Leonard held out something to HookHand.

His hook.

~ End of Chapter 025 RHGee025_The_King_Visits_The_Prison

Author's Note: It isn't exactly a friendship, but more then mutual respect; there is now a connection there.