I am so sorry for keeping everyone in suspense and waiting, but my laptop was deeply infected with viruses and my Dad just recently took it in to get it repaired.

As always, keep in mind the fan art challenge! Shannon, I'd like you to work on this, too, in your spare time. Maybe next week! Just pick a favorite scene, put your imagination to work, and draw! Please PM the links to your drawings to me. Something all you artists out there can do for me. Here's a big thank you in advance!

Again, I really am sorry, but enough rambling... on with the story.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, besides this story, a Flynn/Eugene and Rapunzel doll, Rapunzel costume, and a plush Pascal!

"Rapunzel, I – we have been extremely worried about you. You said that you'd be back within the month and it's been nearly a year! What do you have to say for yourself?" Queen Elizabeth gasped for air after her wrath.

"I'm sorry, Mom, but ti–"

"No but's!" she slammed her fist down on her throne she was sitting in.

"Elizabeth, give the girl a chance to explain herself. Go on, dear." He extended his wrist towards their daughter to continue.

"Thank you, Daddy. Mom, time passes differently on Drakko Isle."

"Oh? How so?" the queen raised her voice in pitch, two octaves.

"Well," she, then, lowered her voice to that of a hush, "how did that dragon put it?" then, after tapping her fingertips on her lips, raised her voice back up, "Oh! 'What appears to be weeks, in reality, are months; the same with seconds, minutes, and days. Days are to weeks as hours are to days and minutes are to hours as seconds are to minutes.'" The princess recited the words of the large lizard. "Besides, Eugene was there to help me and he did an excellent job, if you ask me. Otherwise, I don't know how I would have delivered Oliver and Nevaeh." She spread her arms out in a wide 'X'. "Mom, I am so sorry that I caused you pain."

"Pai-? When did you ever cause me pain?"

"When you gave birth to me," was her simple answer, then Rapunzel continued, "I understand now, what with Annaliese, Oliver and Nevaeh but… I would never trade them for anything! Now, where could Eugene be?" The princess peered around the hallway, handing the twins to a servant. "Take good care of them for me while I'm away."

"Yes, Your Highness." The servant bowed as he took the children in his arms.

"Darling, we –" the king arched an eyebrow and gave her a look, that said, 'Tell her the truth,' across from his chess table. "I need to have a word with you concerning Eugene,"

"What about him?"

"Well, dear, I've had your marriage divvelled." Was how her answer had come out.

Only, now, could Rapunzel truly understand why her mumbling had gotten on Gothel's nerves.

"What are you trying to say, and, please, don't mumble."

The queen sighed, and then blurted out, in an angry heap, "Dispelled! Dismissed! Erased! Obliterated! That's what your marriage to that man has become."

Rapunzel shrunk back away from her mother. How could she have done this, when she knew how much Eugene meant to her? "What!?" The princess gasped.

"Sweetheart, put yourself in my shoes. That man…"

"Eugene. He has a name, you know." The brunette replied curtly, crossing her arms, and averting her mother's gaze, sitting in a plush chair.

"Yes," the queen cleared her throat, "well, Eugene kept you on that strange island far too long and-"

It was then that Rapunzel interrupted, getting out of her seat, and, inching closer to Elizabeth until she was directly in front of her visage.

"He didn't keep me there. I refused to leave without a magical flower!" She spat in her mother's face.

"Oh, no. You couldn't have done tha—"

"But, I did do it, mom." The princess corrected her mother

Elizabeth sighed, with great dismay. "I'm so sorry, but the dismissal of your marriage is final… by law. I'd like you to meet a young lord, by the name of Corteus, from a kingdom across the sea called Grates. He is very noble, good with children, and a wonderful possibility to a new son-in-law, plus I believe-"

"Eugene is all those things rolled up into one person and I don't want things to change, especially when it comes to concerning some lord! Revoke that law divorcing us and Eugene and I can continue our happily ever after! That's what I want!" Rapunzel, outraged, threw her arms up into the air.

"It can't be undone, Rapunzel; not even by your father." Queen Elizabeth grasped her daughter's limbs with her own free hands. "The only thing you two can do to undo this mess, is to be married again!" Elizabeth tried to calm the flowing tears of the brunette princess

"Then that's what we'll do then," Rapunzel sniffed, drying her eyes. "Where is Eugene?"

Reluctantly, the queen gave her answer. "Right about now, the guards should be putting him in one of the dungeon's cells."

"The dungeon? Why? Why must he be put in there?"

"Rapunzel, I didn't want that man near you again. After all, I had thought that he was the reason you stayed away." She clung to her daughter's face.

"But, you were wrong! If Eugene has to stay in there because of me, and then… put me in his place!" She practically screamed at her mother.

"No, Rapunzel, no. I lost you for eighteen years; I can't bear to lose you for anymore length of time. I'll release Eugene Fitzherbert first thing in the morning."

"Mom, I want you to make an announcement. Tell the kingdom that I've made up my mind concerning the royal nanny position. It is going to Katherine McCormick. I'm going to stay with Eugene. We have some things to talk about." The princess called over her shoulder as she tore away for the prison, the queen trying to stop her.

Rapunzel ran the length of stairs to the castle chamber, came to a large, wooden, vaulted door with a small window that had bars going vertically through it. Just like any old dungeon. The brunette thought to herself. She came eye to eye with that very same window just in time to see the captain deliver a blow to the stomach of some poor prisoner. As soon as the captain's fist came in contact of the criminal's abdomen, her eyes squeezed shut on instinct. She heard that very inmate wheeze and draw in raspy breaths, after falling to his knees, trying to regain his lung functions. She cleared her throat at the door, trying to alert someone of her presence.

"Who goes there?" A snarl from inside the dungeon said. Seeing the princess through the bars of the window, he opened the door and stood at attention.

"Thank you. Where are you keeping Eugene Fitzherbert?"

"Cell 1298, princess."

"Would you be so kind as to escort me there?"

"Right away, Princess!" His voice trembled as he spoke.

He took the brunette's right arm in his left, hoping to be a gentleman, and they started striding down the hallway until they came to Eugene's cell. He was in the stocks, head and hands pulled through the wooden beam poised upon his shoulders, a trickle of blood running from the left side of his lips.

Rapunzel gasped. "Open this door, now!" She commanded, with more gumption than she knew she had.

The guard started to protest, but seeing the seriousness on the young woman's face, knew he had better do what she said.

The princess flung the cell door open, as soon as it was unlocked, ran and knelt down at her husband's side, cradling his face. "Eugene!" she cried. "What happened? Who did this to you?"

"Please, Rapunzel, don't look at me." He turned his face away from her delicate touch, wincing and grimacing. But it was too late. The full moon had drifted its light in through the prison bars. Prince Fitzherbert had more than one cut on his face, his right eye was swollen shut, and his ribs were cracked in several places. She gently, yet firmly, placed a cool hand against his retreating warm cheek and pulled him back. He saw the genuine look of horror in her huge emerald orbs, which caused him to explain. "Some of the guards roughed me up. No big deal." The former Flynn Rider shrugged, causing a massive pain to tear through his abdomen.

"No big deal!? Eugene…"

"Blondie, don't make this worse for yourself."

"Eugene, I know you don't like to talk about your past… but we must! Who was your father?"

Eugene hesitated. "A man by the name of Lord Richard Herbert."

Rapunzel looked down to the floor. "Then that means…" her head snapped up. "You're a lord, too!"

Eugene turned towards his wife. "Oh no, Blondie, no. I'm not going through all that again! I don't want to be a lord, besides my father had far too many women 'friends'. If you found all of his illegitimate children, who knows how many lords and ladies we'd have!"

"True, but you are the only lord I love, which might save our marriage."

"What are you talking about?"

Rapunzel drew in a deep breath. "My mom had us divorced because she thought that you had kept me on Drakko Isle, but I set her straight."

"Divorced?" Eugene shrunk back. "Isn't that a little extreme, even for her?"

"Yes, I know, but there's nothing we can do about it," the brunette said in defeat. "But she did say we could get married again, that's the only solution."

The prince consort slowly raised his head. "Remarry?" He replied. "The only way that's going to happen is if I can get out of here."

"Mom said she would release you tomorrow morning," she hugged her husband around the middle, causing the ex-thief to cringe.

"That's great, just great. Okay, you can let go now," Eugene winced.

The princess noticed his pained expression and immediately released the grip she had on him. "Oops, sorry. Can we get him out of this, please?" She asked the guard standing at the gate's entrance, who immediately, upon request, unlocked the stocks that held the prisoner.

"Much…" Eugene stretched as the instrument of punishment came off and regretted it, "better. That hurt more than I thought it would. Blondie, d'you realize that your hair is more blonde than brown? You've got cute, little, golden highlights."

"Golden highlights?!" She tugged at the end of her hair. "Eugene do you know what this means?!" The princess whispered, excitedly.

"No, but I'm betting it has something to do with the magical flower you ingested."

"I don't know, but maybe," Rapunzel said quietly. "It means I can heal you right now, instead of getting Annaliese!"

"Well, duh, but..."

She leaned into Eugene, upon the hay that was scattered throughout the prince consort's cell. Rapunzel started singing the incantation, the highlights glowing ever so softly. It was working. Soon Eugene's eye was no longer black and blue and puffy, the trickle of blood vanished, his lip scarred over. Lastly, the princess gently placed her head on Eugene's abdomen, which earned her several winces, as well as some 'Ow's' from the ex-con.

"Quit whining, you big baby!" She playfully slapped him across the arm, which made the prince consort whine all the more!

"But, it's painful!"

"Oh? And you think birthing two babies isn't?" After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Rapunzel, sitting silently back on her legs, her arms crossed below her downturned head, thinking of the births. The princess winced. "Oh, Eugene," she said softly, as she embraced him in a romantic hug, "I never meant that I would have wished for them not to have existed. On the contrary, I love Oliver and Nevaeh very much and wouldn't trade them for the world! Never think I would."

"I know, Blondie. I know." The princess smiled up at him.

"Thank you, Eugene. Now," she searched the hay for a place to settle in for the night, "I'm staying with you until morning, so I need to find a place to sleep." Finally, she settled down upon a bunch of soft straw in one cell corner.

Eugene began to walk towards her, his hands outstretched, "Blondie, you really don't have to do that. In fact, I'd prefer if you went inside to our room and got a good night's rest."

Rapunzel lifted her head from the hay, "I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but you are my husband, despite what my mom decreed, and I belong with you."

"Well, then," Eugene started for the mound of hay that Rapunzel was on, "let's cuddle and not think about the 's' word tonight, okay?"

"'S' word?" The princess looked confused, as the ex-con came and snuggled up against her body, "What 's' word?"

"You know," the prince consort kissed her shoulder where her sleeve had come off, "making love."

"Eugene, we're both adults here. You can say sex."

"Okay, let's not think about sex tonight. Just you and me. Together."

"I like the sound of that," she reached up and kissed Eugene's lips, releasing them with a smack!

Eugene rested beside his wife, wrapping his arms around Rapunzel's mid-section, as sleep overtook both prince consort and princess.

Please review, review, REVIEW! The more reviews I get, the more chapters you'll receive. And remember, the fan art challange is open to anyone and everyone!