hey there guys, im back. i was on holiday down south (well it was actually southport, but since i live in scotland everything in england is south to me!) and then i had a wee bit of writers block, so this may not be the best.

ok, this chapter is a continuation of the last chapter, but its more from rapunzels point of view, it also fills out some of my oc's a bit more.

dragongirl1: you werent rude, i just wasnt here

rayrayofcali: glad your enjoying this and you perservered.

crazyredhead: currently working on another chpater with the king and queen, think its chapter after next.

funkywatermelon: i hope stormy is everything you want and more. though since max was all white, she had to be all black.

romanceandmusicals: well, since rapunzel and eugene have no parents and robert and emily have no children i thought it was a perfect match, so they can complete each other.

disclaimer: i still own nothing.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The first day in Estrella was difficult for everyone, as well as completely joyful. The first thing Rapunzel had to do was see both the Midwife and the Apothecary. This was an entirely new experience for Rapunzel, having never seen anyone medically related or anyone who really cared for people professionally. Though, she was very excited to meet people who healed people for a living. It was something different.

When Emily entered the room she was alone, she didn't know if Rapunzel would catch onto the story as quickly as Eugene. Emily closed the door softly behind her after telling the small group to wait in the hallway for a second. She placed the tray of breakfast foods on the bedside table for Rapunzel before sitting on the bed and calmly explaining the plan to her. Rapunzel didn't understand why she had to lie to people she never met until Emily explained that it would keep both of them safe. She told her it was obvious they were both running from something and if people thought that she was in fact her daughter than they would be able to hide so much better.

After Rapunzel agreed to this pretence Emily let in the other people. Rapunzel was quite nervous, since she had never met new people without Eugene right beside her, but Emily calmed her and said that she would stay by her side through these examinations. She was so sweet and loving you would have been easily fooled into thinking that she was in fact a concerned mother.

The first person in the room was Nathan, the apothecary. He told her that he had a shop and a clinic in the village, and though he wasn't the doctor he was almost as good as. He had been taking care of the minor injuries and illnesses in the village for the last twenty years. He did assure her that if her situation became more serious he would send one of his sons off to the next village, where there was a doctor. At first Rapunzel didn't understand much of what he told her, she had never heard of a doctor or an apothecary before, but she was very interested to see what he did. First he felt her forehead lightly, and then he squeezed her wrist while looking at his watch, then her chest. He looked into her eyes and mouth before feeling her neck. After this he started to tap on her chest. This felt very strange. Even stranger was when he pulled out a weird cone shaped device which he placed over her chest in several places and listened in to!

After all these strange behaviours he then smiled at her and told her she would be fine. She had only caught a slight chill, but to be on the safe side he would recommend bed rest for the next few days. He turned to Emily and told her that he would send his daughter by later with some draughts that will make Rapunzel feel a bit better and reminded her to make sure she drinks plenty of water and has a very good meal. He looked back at Rapunzel and gave her a reassuring pat on the hand before telling her that this happened to his daughter in law a few winters back and it was nothing at all to worry about.

After Nathan left an older woman and young woman with a small child came in. Emily introduced the older woman as Mattie. This woman then went on to explain that she is a midwife, and this is a person who looks after pregnant women. She then scolded Rapunzel for not having gone to a midwife sooner, saying that it was very irresponsible. And for good measure she also scolded Emily for not insisting more. This made Rapunzel laugh. This older woman sounded like she was a mother to both herself and Emily.

"Well, technically she is. She's helped give birth to every child in this village." Emily informed Rapunzel, once she shared this thought with her.

"She likes to pretend that she's everyone's grandma, instead of only our family. But we don't mind sharing her," The young woman, Alison said. This lifted the spirits of everyone in the room, especially when Caroline, in her childish wisdom yelled up that she wasn't her grandma, she was her great-grandma.

The exam was fairly interesting. Once again, her pulse was taken but this time instead of feeling her chest Mattie focused on her stomach. She spent a long time watching her stomach then she started to feel it. This made her feel really uncomfortable and made her need to pee, a lot. Then Mattie looked up at her and smiled.

"Your baby is fine; it's exactly where it needs to be." Mattie said, before she reached into her bag and pulled out another strange cone thing. She placed this near her right hip and smiled again.

"Your baby had such a strong heartbeat." Mattie said through such a wide smile.

"You can hear it!" Rapunzel exclaimed.

"Yes, and it sounds wonderful." Mattie said as she motioned Emily over to hear it too. Emily listened for a whole half minute before she begun to tear up. She moved up quickly to hug Rapunzel who had also begun to tear up. Rapunzel just couldn't hold in the joy that her baby is perfectly fine. Mattie also said that the baby should arrive by the end of April or the beginning of May.

"I'll come by again in a few weeks to check on you again, but if you need anything you know where I am." Mattie said as she packed up her bag and begun to leave.

"Rapunzel?" Alison said quietly.

"Yes?" Rapunzel said, looking at the young woman who hadn't said a word in the last half hour.

"I know that this is your first child and that it can be scary, but if you need anything at all you can me also. As well as that, there's a church group that meets everyday. It's for mothers and daughters. There are about three other young women in the village due to give birth and we all meet up and knit and sew and chat. We meet in the church everyday for lunch. We also make things for the orphanage. I really enjoyed it when I had Caroline and I keep going. There are also about five young mothers there too. It's really good to have support during this time. I would love it if you would come along."

"Thanks, I will." Rapunzel said with a huge smile.

"Not yet. You're on bed rest for the next few days. We'll see you at the church group next week." Mattie said as she and the other women left Rapunzel in her room.

Now, it would take force greater than Eugene, Robert and Emily, or even Mattie, to keep Rapunzel in bed when there was somewhere new to explore. Eugene did manage to persuade her to stay in doors for the time being, just to be on the safe side, but that didn't stop her doing everything she could around the house. Especially since they were going to be staying there for the indefinite future.

Robert helped Rapunzel get everything off the cart while Eugene was in the village with Father Patrick. In only took them a few minutes to get everything off, but Robert did draw the line at letting Rapunzel into the smithy or the stables as it was still really cold. So instead Rapunzel sent Pascal in to check on Max and report back to her. This would of worked better if she had warned Emily about her pet chameleon. The Hills neighbour actually did come round to see what was going on and why someone was screaming so loud. After Emily was made a very strong cup of tea and allowed a formal introduction to Rapunzel's best friend everything was fine.

Everything was especially fine with Max. Robert had let him out into the field with their own horses. Altogether, the Hills owned about five horses, all mares. Three were still very young and had yet to be broken in, one was a very old horse that had been put out to pasture the year previous after years of very loyal service. The fourth horse was the interesting one. She had been bought three years ago to take over from the older horse, but she was not a very friendly horse. She was not mean, just not cooperative. She was a large black horse who had been aptly named Stormy. And, according to Pascal, had caught Max's eye instantly not that Stormy was given him an inch at all. Rapunzel had watched their interactions from her bedroom window and couldn't help but laugh as Max followed her around and tried to impress her with his strength, speed and charm.

Rapunzel looked around the room which was now hers and Eugene's. It was quite large and felt really homely. Emily told her that it had always been a spare room, as their children all died before they moved to Estrella. The room had a rather large bed carved out of some rather nice oak. In fact all the furniture was carved out of oak. There was a large wardrobe with a chest of drawers and a table and a chair.

"Robert likes to make furniture. He also likes to carve, don't you dear?" Emily called behind her as she brought in one of the sacks from the cart.

"Aye, been doing it since I was a kid, my dad taught me. This is some nice work. It'll match the rest of the furniture at least." Robert said as he put down the crib that had been in the cart.

"This ok?" Robert asked. It took Rapunzel a minute to figure out that he was talking about the placement of the crib.

"Oh yes, yes that's fine. Is it? I don't really know." Rapunzel said as she got up and looked around the room. She had no idea where to put a crib.

"It's fine. It's out of the draught, and out of direct sunlight, but will be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It's fine." Emily said soothingly directly Rapunzel back to the bed, to sit down.

"I know this is all a little overwhelming, but we're here to help you." Emily said

"But why?" Rapunzel asked.

"Everyone deserves a second chance. You don't have any family do you? Neither do we. We wanted one so badly, and then it was taken from us. We've wanted to help young people for years. We do a lot for the orphanage, but this is different. You two need a home and we can help give you something that we never had. Looks like we're both going to give each other what we need. Now, how about I help you unpack. You both can stay here for as long as you need to." Emily said softly as Robert brought in the last of the sacks from the cart.

For the rest of the afternoon Rapunzel and Emily unpacked and started to make Rapunzel's and Eugene's room seem more homely, and everything that was missing Rapunzel added it to a list of things that she would make and do while she was pregnant.

"This is beautiful work," Emily said after about an hour of unpacking. She was holding up the cream dress that Rapunzel had gotten married in only a few days before.

"Thank you," Rapunzel said with a smile.

"Did you make this?" Emily asked, very curious as the dress had some of the most exquisite beadwork she had ever seen. In fact, every dress she had hung up was beautiful.

"Yes, I did." Rapunzel said happily. Gothel had never complimented her on her dress making. It felt nice to have a mother figure give her some positive praise.

"It's really good. You know, I'm a dressmaker. I actually make dresses for all the noble women in this area, but I don't think I could ever do anything this beautiful. I was thinking, how about you become my partner? I could really use your help, especially with the holiday season coming up. Every noble woman wants a new dress for this damn holiday ball in the capital. Would you be interested?" Emily asked as she looked through all of Rapunzel's dresses.

"Oh, oh yes, yes that would be amazing!" Rapunzel exclaimed as she jumped up and hugged Emily.

"What else can you do?" Emily asked, seeing everything that had been laid out on the bed. Rapunzel then explained everything that she could do including knitting, painting and playing guitar. Emily was amazed at this young talented girl, and told her this. She also told her how the orphans would be amazed at someone could do all these things, and how happy they would be to meet her. Rapunzel seemed very happy about this whole idea. Eugene had told her how when he lived in the orphanage the nun who helped them paint once a month was always so very exciting and now she could give that kind of happiness to children like Eugene.

Emily decided to let Rapunzel sort the rest of her room out herself while she went downstairs to talk to her husband as well as prepare a meal for Rapunzel. She told him how she now had a new partner to help her, this made Robert laugh.

"So, Rapunzel has some talent, I wonder if Eugene does too?" Robert said as he led a horse through to the smithy.

"Why, what are you thinking?" Emily asked. She knew her husband very well, and knew that he was up to something.

"You'll see." Was all he said. Emily just shook her head as she walked through to her workshop to look at all the orders that she had waiting. Each order had the name of the woman, her measurements and the types of dresses she would prefer. Emily decided that it was time to get organised. She would need double the amount of supplies, as well as another dressmakers dummy, if there was going to be another person working here as well. She decided that Rapunzel would be best suited to making the younger ladies dresses as well as doing the embroidery work for the older ladies dresses.

After she had sorted out everything she decided that she better make something for Rapunzel to eat. While she was making some soup she heard Eugene come in and though she didn't mean to she couldn't help but overhear their conversation. She heard all their fears and all their despair. And she wanted to help.

She set down the tray outside Rapunzel's room and made her way back down to the smithy to talk to her husband again.

"You know Emily," Robert said as soon as she walked in, "I've been thinking that I'm getting a bit too old for all this. I think I need to take on an apprentice. I don't think that there's anyone in the village that might be suited, and I think all the orphan boys are a bit too young. Do you think Eugene would be interested at all?"

"You heard didn't you?" Emily said with a small quirk of her eyebrow.

"Well, it seems you did."

"I think that would be a good idea. I mean, we did plan for that room to be used by your future apprentice." Emily said with a smile as she kissed her husband on the check. Robert smiled back at the warm and happy look on his wife's face. He felt so content that he was finally giving someone what he had been given a long time ago.

At dinner that night both Emily and Rapunzel had cooked. Eugene had of course tried to talk her out of it, but Rapunzel wouldn't even hear him out. She had quite sternly told him that if they were staying there then they should help out. Emily tried to come to his rescue but realised that it was all in vain and instead gave her small jobs to do. She did smile at Eugene to let him know that she understood his point, and hopefully he understood.

Once dinner was ready all four adults sat at the table, once they fussed over Rapunzel for a little while. She was sitting closest to the fire with a very thick shawl wrapped around her. It all stopped when Rapunzel had eventually yelled for Eugene to stop and gave him a very serious look. He took the hint and sat down and was quiet.

"You know, it took me months to realise never piss off your wife. Especially not your pregnant wife." Robert laughed while giving Eugene a hearty pat on the back. Eugene had never felt so welcome in all his life. He kept on thinking that this must be what home feels like. He looked over at Rapunzel and saw her beam and laughs. She looked so very happy, and he hoped that he could keep her smiling.

"You know," Robert said while they were eating dessert, "I thinking of taking on an apprentice. Running the smithy is starting to get a bit much for me. Unfortunately there isn't anyone in the village who would be suited to it. Would you be interested Eugene?"

This statement made both Rapunzel and Eugene look up. Robert couldn't possible be asking what they thought he was asking.

"I… I don't have any experience." Eugene stuttered out.

"Well, that's why I'm taking on an apprentice. Besides, I didn't know anything about being a blacksmith when I was your age, but I learned, and quite quickly too. So, how about it?" Robert said.

Eugene went back to stuttering. In less than two days he had been given a home, a job and a community, as well as security. He was completely overwhelmed. No one had ever treated him with such kindness in his entire life. He had no idea what to say or where to begin his thanks. All he could really do was nod.

"Great, we start tomorrow. I suggest you get a good nights sleep. The first day is always the worst." Roberts said before diving back into his dessert. He looked up slightly to see his wife and his new "daughter" smiling at him.

This is what Robert had always wanted. Family. And he knew that that was what both Rapunzel and Eugene wanted and desperately needed at this time. It made him feel good, to give someone else a second chance, he just really hoped that he wouldn't live to regret it.

well, i hope that wasnt too much of a disappointment.

anyway, im now thinking of baby names. i have eliana, amelia and arabella for a girl and james, issac, and edward for a boy. but, im more than willing to hear everyone out, so with each review could you please leave a baby name and i may take that into consideration.

the birth will be in about ten chapters, probably, so as many names as possible would help, then the chapter before i may put it to a vote, but i may just stick with one of my original names.

anyway, thanks for being so patient.

xx