I am so sorry for keeping everyone in suspense and waiting, again. I'm working on another Christian fiction novel and am obsessed with the Sims 3, still, no excuse... but then you'll now know why I'm late with updates!
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 sat up with a jolt, sweat pouring ¬¬down her forehead. She'd had a nightmare about Eugene and placed a hand over her beating heart once awake. The princess kissed her husband on the cheek, without so much as causing him to stir, stood up and stretched. The young woman reached her hand to her hair. It was longer – almost to her waist! Oh, how she wished for a mirror now.
The queen had hastened down into the dungeon looking for her daughter, because when she checked her bed that morning, it was empty. She'd known that her child wouldn't have let Eugene Fitzherbert stay in the prisons by himself. Rapunzel would have gone down and stayed with the ex-thief, like she had said.
Once at cell 1298, the queen looked in on her daughter and Eugene. "Rapunzel," she called into the early morning light.
"Mother," the brunette replied curtly, sitting on the straw. It was the first time she had called her Mom, "Mother," and she saw the hurt in her mom's eyes.
Queen Elizabeth winced. "I guess I deserve that. Eugene's been pardoned. I just made the announcement. He's free to go and you two are free to remarry."
The young princess stood and came to the cell bars. "Mom, I have wonderful news! Eugene is a lord!"
The queen looked skeptical, raising an eyebrow. "Oh? And how do you know this?"
"He told me so last night. His father was Lord Richard Herbert, which makes him a lord, too, right?"
"Lord Richard Herbert? Yes, that does make him a lord, but I'm afraid that if we made him a lord, we'd have to make his step-siblings lords and ladies, too."
"Don't you mean, 'if he had any siblings?'. Who knows if his father had any other children?"
"Touché." Queen Elizabeth responded. "I'll look him up in our records and see what I can find out, but first," she opened the cell door, "let's get you out of there and into a nice warm bath."
"What about Eugene?" Rapunzel glided her hand toward the man in the prison.
"Let him sleep. He looks exhausted!" The queen exclaimed.
"But, wouldn't he be more comfortable in our bed? I think he would. Let me wake him and you can help me bring him up to our room." She kneeled down on the hard concrete floor and gently shook the former Flynn Rider. "Eugene? Eugene? Wake up."
"Hmm," he moaned, then turning to the face of his smiling bride, smiled himself and commented, "Morning, Blondie."
"Eugene, you're free! Come on up to our room where you can get proper rest in our bed and later on we can remarry!" Rapunzel shrieked happily grabbing the ex-con's hand, pulling him up and toward her.
"I'll come up, but you need rest, too. I can wait. Or else, I can sleep on the couch."
"I'm going to bathe before anything. I feel pretty grimy."
"You don't look it, though." Eugene said, gently rubbing a thumb down the princess's cheek.
"You're so sweet, Eugene. Thank you, but I know you're wrong."
"Well, you slept in a filthy prison, against my advice."
"What was your advice, Eugene?" The elder woman asked, staring into the ex-thief's eyes.
"I instructed Rapunzel that 'I'd prefer if she went inside to our room and got a good night's rest.'"
"Oh, well, how very thoughtful of you, Mr. Fitzherbert." The queen said as they walked up the stairs into the castle. She walked the two to their bedroom door and reminded them, "no funny business. You're still divorced and must remarry as soon as possible."
"Don't remind me. Oh, mom, did you make the announcement concerning the nanny position?"
Nodding her head 'yes' she added, "I did it earlier on this morning. I'll look up Lord Herbert and any other possible illegitimate children he may have had, and get back with you."
The former Flynn Rider took Rapunzel's arm, "Excuse us," he pulled the young woman to the side of the wall and glared in her eyes, "You told her of my father?!" His voice rose.
"Yes, I thought she needed to know. She could make you a lord an-"
"I told you, I don't want to be a lord." He reiterated his teeth clenched.
"But if that's the only way we can be together, won't you do it?" Rapunzel pleaded.
"Of course, Blondie. Of course. I want to be with you more than anything." The ex-con began rubbing Rapunzel's arms, up and down, over and over, where he'd been holding her to reassure the young woman. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Forgive me?" He looked into her closed, tear-filled-eyes.
She opened her orbs and nodding up and down waited for Eugene's lips to meet hers in an apologetic kiss.
"C'mon," he motioned to the huge oak door, "let's go in." The young man put his arm around his princess's shoulders and walked as he guided her into their room.
"Eugene, I don't understand why you don't want to be a lord!" Rapunzel threw her arms down, then brought one back up and touched her breast. "Can you please explain this to me?"
Eugene sighed. "I don't –" he paused. "I don't want –"
"I know you don't want to be a lord, Eugene, I understand that, but please tell me why."
"Because I don't want to become my father, Blondie."
The princess reached out and took the ex-thief's hand, brought it to her lips, and kissed it. "There is absolutely no way that you will become your father."
"How do you know?"
"Well, for one thing, would your father have given his only chance at survival up to save me?"
"No. He was too narcissistic to do anything like that."
"But you weren't. In one instant, you willingly gave your life in exchange for mine."
"So? I loved you and still do. Nothing will ever change that."
"Thank you, Eugene. I know that, but that's one reason why I can't fathom you not wanting to become a lord. All it is is a title."
"A royal title."
"Well, you are royal – by marriage. I wouldn't have it any other way. Now, I have to attend to Oliver and Nevaeh. They're probably starving!" She ran into the nursery, remembered there was only one crib, looked in and there were her twins – screaming loudly for milk to eat and clean diapers.
Rapunzel lifted Oliver then Nevaeh, to her breasts, Oliver to her left and Nevaeh to her right. But Oliver wouldn't nurse, so the princess decided to put him down and the young prince kept right on crying. She sat down in the rocker in the corner of the room. Nursing Nevaeh was a comforting feeling to the brunette, or the blonde, now; she kept on rubbing circles on her daughter's back to calm her down. Once the princess had nursed Nevaeh, she put her on a changing table and proceeded to change her daughter's cloth diaper. It was completely coated! Rapunzel went on to remove the cloth, wash Nevaeh's buttocks, and put a new cloth underneath her. Pulling it closed around her naval and putting a safety pin through it, she finished up with her daughter and placed her back in the crib with her crying fraternal twin. She picked up Oliver and unpinned his diaper, but to her surprise it was clean! So the young woman pinned it back together and wrapped him safely in his cashmere blue blanket.
Eugene stepped in just as the blonde bent down and picked up Oliver. His shrieking had ceased somewhat, but not quite enough. It was alarming to Eugene that his son was in such pain, but the parents could not figure out why. Rapunzel kept holding him, cradling his head as she kept shushing him.
"I don't know what's wrong with him, Eugene. I've tried nursing him and I checked his diaper, but it was clean. And he's still wailing. What am I doing wrong?"
"You're not doing anything wrong, Blondie. Do you want me to take him, while you go and make the new wedding arrangements?"
"Let me take a quick bath first and then I'll get to it. Thank you, Eugene."
Rapunzel ran to their room, pulled the huge bathtub out of the walk-in closet with great effort, and called for a servant to fill it to the brim with hot water.
"Kasey, thank you for doing this for me." Rapunzel said to the servant. It took several trips for the servant to bring many buckets full of water, heat it up, and pour it in the tub. "I really appreciate it."
Kasey's sapphire eyes lit up. "Anything for you, Your Majesty."
"Please, call me Rapunzel. Just Rapunzel."
"Rapunzel," Kasey slowly said, unsure if the princess really meant it or not. "Would you like me to try and put your hair up?"
Rapunzel looked down at her hair. It had grown at an alarmingly accelerated rate. It was down way past her ankles and trailed behind her for four-feet! "Sure. You can try. Thank you."
The girl got going on Rapunzel's hair – pinning it up on top of head, layer upon layer – until it was wrapped around her head like a turban.
"There you are your high– I mean, Rapunzel. Enjoy your bath. "
"Thank you, I will. Goodbye, Kasey. It was nice meeting you."
"Nice to meet you, too," Kasey curtsied as she shut the door behind her. The princess undressed, being careful not to unsettle her hair after all the hard work the young girl had put into it. She put her foot into the extremely large basin to test the water temperature and found it to be perfect. Rapunzel submerged her entire being, excluding her hair, in the warm liquid. She grabbed a bar of lavender soap, wiping it into a wash cloth, then, replacing the bar to its soap dish, she started to cleanse herself of all the disgusting filth that she felt was on her skin.
As she was finishing up her bath, Eugene suddenly smashed through the door.
"Eugene!" Rapunzel shrieked, pulling a towel over the bathtub where her body was exposed, soaking the cloth. "I was bathing!"
"It's not like I've never seen you naked. For crying out loud, we've made three babies together! But we've got bigger problems; Oliver just spiked a fever." Prince Fitzherbert put his hand up to his son's forehead. "He's burning up!"
"Hand him to me."
"No offense, Blondie, but I don't want our son getting wet… unless it'll cool his fever."
"This water has cooled down quite a bit. My body took in all the heat. I was just about to get out when you came in."
"So, go ahead and get out."
"Turn your back," Rapunzel instructed. "And no peeking until I tell you it's okay."
"Okay, okay." The ex-con hesitantly agreed.
The princess hurried and stepped out of the bath, took a long cloth and wiped her body dry. Then she went over to the closet, pulled the drawers open where all her dresses were located. She picked a simple light pink garment out to wear, pulled it over her head, letting the strands of hair flow down her back and spill onto the floor. Her dress came up to her neck in lace, same as the lower sleeves to her wrists.
"Are you done yet?" Prince Fitzherbert said in an exaggerated tone, front visible by the princess.
"Eugene!" Rapunzel screeched as she jumped around to face the former Flynn Rider. "I didn't tell you 'okay' yet!"
"What? My eyes are still closed. Besides, don't you think I know you well enough to know when you're dressed? Besides, I can still hear." Rapunzel's face turned a bright red at this, then pulled herself together, and took Oliver from Eugene.
"My goodness, you weren't kidding! He's on fire! I'm going to take him down to Dr. Miller's and see what's up, okay?"
"Alright, you do what you think is best for the boy." Eugene put his two-cents in, eyes still closed, arms extended, holding Oliver out to her.
"Eugene," Rapunzel, after taking her son, put her free hand up to the ex-thief's eyes and gently prodded them open a crack, "you can look, now."
"Okay, Blondie." Feeling like a fool, the former Flynn Rider opened his eyes the rest of the way.
"How about you finish the preparations for our wedding and I'll take Oliver to see Dr. Miller, okay?"
"Sure thing."
"My goodness, he's warm! And look at the rash starting on his hands."
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! I want to thank all of you who've put my story in your favorites!