Gothel Nurses Baby Rapunzel

"Me, I'm just your mother, what do I know?

I only bathed and changed and nursed you."

-Mother Knows Best

"Come on, please. Please, come in." Gothel was talking to her breasts. Pleading for milk to come in to feed the baby. The baby was crying so much, lung-emptying wails. Gothel knew the baby was hungry. Tears dripped down, tears of pain and frustration.

The flower had saved her from starvation during times of famine. She had eaten grass and mud to stave off the hunger pangs that had threatened to debilitate her. She knew exactly what the baby was going through, they was so painful.

She had never had a baby of her own, but the cries tore at her heart, and she cried all the time, hardly ever sleeping.

She had stolen a goat to provide milk, but she dared not do that again. The kingdom was swarming with people searching for blonde babies. She had had an encounter at the nearby pub with a search party, that had been far too close for comfort. She'd do anything to keep the baby but escaping a dozen guards would have been … hard.

But that stupid goat died. How could it have died? They eat anything and can climb anywhere. The ground around the tower was full of good grass. There was even a tasty patch of radishes in one corner of the canyon.

Gothel did admit to herself that she wasn't really all that good at managing animals. Plants, on the other hand, she did well with. The forest was filled with food, if you knew where and when to look. The tower was a good place to hide, but the canyon couldn't provide much food, too much shade and too small, though that patch of rapunzel was the best tasting she had ever found.

She was glad that there was something. She couldn't leave the baby, and the baby screamed all the time so they couldn't leave the tower to search for more food.

For two weeks she'd been trying to give the baby suck. Something should have happened by now. The first time she opened her dress for the baby it had been embarrassing for some reason, now undoing the buttons filled her with dread.

If she could just get the baby fed and quiet she could start searching the forest for edibles and then transplant them closer to the tower. She would have a food forest in just a few months if she was diligent.

"Ughnn," Gothel panted, the baby was sucking so hard, trying desperately to get some suck to eat. "By the Light, this baby can suck." she thought to herself. At least the baby hasn't given up and neither would she. She had seen babes die, so many times. This one had to live.

Using her pinky, Gothel popped the baby off of one breast, and while she screamed her lungs empty, Gothel turned her to the other breast. Steeling herself she let the baby latch on, gasping in pain as she did so, trying not to flinch or scream, like she so desperately wanted to.

Gothel was pretty sure that if you let a baby suck enough, the milk would come in, but she didn't think it would take this long, or be so painful. While she had sung the incantation every day to keep the baby healthy and alive, while they waited for the milk to come, but the flower couldn't fix something that wasn't broken. She had sung after trying for hours get milk, after the baby had gone to sleep from exhaustion, to heal her sore breasts.

They hurt so much!

Sobbing in frustration and pain Gothel finally threw her head back and screamed, "For the Light! Flower, gleam and glow, let your power shine…" just to try and relieve the pain.

The hair glowed, the pain subsided and wonder of wonders, her breasts filled with sweet, warm milk.

Weeping in relief, Gothel said, "thank you, thank you, thank you." The baby suckled, was fed and saved. And finally slept quietly for the night.

ZZZZZ

Gothel is not irredeemably evil. Not when she put up with this for two weeks. Is she?

Did you feel Gothel's frustration?

If I had put this as a flashback just before the Queen finds out in "Rapunzel goes Home" would it have changed how you feel about the Queens desire to drink Gothel's blood?