"What?" Rapunzel padded down the spiral staircase, stumbling down the last step and catching her balance before wandering to the desk in the living room, where Eugene was seated. He'd woken her with a loud yelping sound, but he was quick to flip the laptop's screen towards the keys, hiding whatever he'd been viewing. "You woke me up. What's going on?"
He blinked at her a few times, then rubbed his face. "Sorry. Ah, sorry. Wow. Just reading the police report for my parents' crash. Sorry. I fell asleep on the chair. Almost fell out of it. If I made a noise, that's why."
"You're talking in fragments," Rapunzel pointed out. "You're not telling me everything." She peered at him critically.
He swallowed so hard Rapunzel could almost hear him gulp. "I'll tell you later, okay? Get some sleep."
"Huh-uh. I was sleeping, but then you woke me up. I'm here now, and you're not going to get rid of me anytime soon. Not unless you tell me."
He sighed. He really didn't want to tell her this, especially since she was so close to having the baby - he didn't want to upset her so badly that she started going into labor, and if anything, this would do it - but he also knew she wouldn't budge on the matter. He didn't even know if it was possible to upset someone so much that they went into labor, but he wasn't gonna chance it. "I don't want to tell you, Rapunzel, and there's a good reason why. I'll tell you sometime, just not now, okay? Please?"

"No," Rapunzel shook her head, and then she leaned around him to push the laptop screen back up, viewing the text in front of her eyes. She blinked her bleary eyes to clear them. Eugene wanted to snatch the laptop from her, but knew that would be pretty rude. And then she gasped, clasping her hand over her heart. She backed up, and Eugene shot up out of his chair to grab her before she tripped over the edge of the coffee table. "No." She stared at him, wide-eyed, and repeated the word once more.

He sighed. "I didn't want you to see because of it," he pulled her to the couch and made her sit. She stared at him in horror for way too long.
"She-I hate her!" Rapunzel yelled as soon as her wits were gathered. "She's a witch! She's-she's-I can't believe this! How-"
"Calm down," Eugene warned her, and kept her seated when she tried to jump - jump being a loose term - up to pace the room. "Calm. Down."
"No!" she exclaimed. "Why didn't they do something?!" her voice soared to heights neither knew it could reach. Veronica Conily, her adoptive mother and murderess, had begun her career as a killer when she'd stolen a car and used it to slam into Elaine and Joshua Fitzhebert's car, which had held their new baby, Eugene. It had been a random murder and masked as an accident, in which it had at first been pegged on the owner of the car, who hadn't even had time to report the car as missing yet. She'd remained dormant - supposedly - in her murderess career until Rapunzel was fifteen. The case had gone cold after the owners' alibis checked out, until someone had dusted for prints in the car six years later to solve the stolen-car case. By then, however, Veronica had cut all ties with the orphanage. Veronica's low profile had prevented the local police force from finding her, and no other forces had been brought in for improved search efforts or better search programs and tech, since it was considered an accident.
"It was supposed to be an accident." he murmured. "But I can guarantee you that she's serving for this as well, as soon as someone went through the cold cases."

Her eyes filled with hot, angry tears. "My adoptive mother murdered your parents! How can you be so calm? How can you sit beside the person who was raised by her and-and be so calm about it?" she cried. She clenched her hands into fists until her nails bit into her soft palms. "I can't-"
"Hey. Calm down. It's not good for the baby that you're getting so upset, Rapunzel, and don't tell me you aren't because your neck is red." He gave her a pensive stare until she took a deep breath and huffed it back out, expecting his answer. "I'm not furious. I'm not mad - at you or at her. I know that she's in jail now. We both helped in that. Maybe it was an accident, but I doubt it. I'm not going to obsess over it. I know what happened, and I know who did it. There's no use getting upset over people you never knew, after all," Eugene brought up what she'd said awhile back.
"But-your parents," she managed.
"And it's all in the past. Sorry I woke you. It was just such a shock...I don't want you to get any more upset or mad, okay?"
"How can you be so calm about it?" she repeated. "I would be...I-I'd be going to the prison to bash her head off a wall by now!"
Eugene shook his head. "No use in getting mad. It's a shocker, yeah, but I'm not going to let my anger at her fester inside until I become bitter and cruel like her."

Rapunzel knew he was right, and immediately felt a little bit of regret for her reaction. Maybe she needed to take a page out of her husband's book - metaphorically - and do the same, instead of getting angry and letting it consume her when she'd finally let go of eighteen years' worth of abuse two years ago. She grew very small as she thought of this.
"You're right. I'm sorry,"
He shook his head. "It's okay. Now, head up to bed before you get fired up again, hm?" he gave a wry smile to let her know he was joking and turned back to the laptop. "I'll get this shut down and be upstairs soon."
"Okay," Rapunzel sighed, standing up.

When they got up that morning for work, Rapunzel felt almost weird being around Eugene. Her adoptive mother was the reason why he'd been in twenty-two foster homes and called a bad luck charm. She felt somehow responsible for it. So she made breakfast early and ate before he was downstairs. She busied herself dusting - a completely useless activity - while he was eating.
"Alright, what's going on? Are you feeling okay?" Eugene asked when he noticed Rapunzel lagging behind him as they walked to work, as opposed to nestled under the warmth of his arm.
"I'm fine," Rapunzel said quietly. "No biggie."
He backed up and pulled her to his side. "You're not upset about last night, are you?"
She stayed silent for a moment, thinking. "I just feel so awful that..."
"Rapunzel, it's okay. It's not your fault. Actually, it's kind of reassuring to know that we both put her away. I don't want you stewing and, geez, avoiding me, because of it. Okay?"
She grimaced. "That obvious? I'm sorry. I just...feel weird about it."
"Why should you blame yourself? You're not responsible for your adoptive mother's actions, let alone what she did two years before you were born!"
She bit her lip and nodded. "I know. I...can't even explain it."
"I figured you would be, though. You have a crummy habit of blaming yourself for stuff. I'm assuming it's still from your upbringing. If anything, I'd like to ask Veronica why she wanted to kill my parents, or if it was an accident."
Rapunzel thought for a moment. "She only killed people who had done something to her before, or the Stabbington Brothers."
"Mmhmm," Eugene nodded. "Obviously, at least my mother wasn't into drugs or anything before I was born because I wasn't taken away, but...it could be any number of things."