Reaching into my inner disney nerd for this one! a lot of references in this chapter! we are taking a different direction. now… that being said, this is probably the last act of this story. not the last chapter, far from it, but we will be closing in on the end pretty soon. leave your thoughts and enjoy!

Rapunzel sat with Eugene, overlooking the garden that Rapunzel built. It was one of their favorite pastimes whenever the two were off of work. Like Merida's father, Eugene was a police officer, though given that he was younger, he obviously was a lower rank.

It was quite odd to say the least, at a younger age, Eugene was in a street gang, committing crimes and generally getting into trouble, until he was arrested and sent to juvenile delinquent facility when he was 17. After that he sent some time in rehab and after cleaning up his life, he joined the army, where he spent some time training for a few years, before he met Joseph.

To Rapunzel it was funny. Eugene was the sweetest guy she had ever known. She knew that he was a bad boy when he was younger, but clearly, whoever it was that arrested him had read him the riot act and really opened his eyes. Though Eugene never saw the police officer again, he was thankful to have been arrested. Yeah that was odd to hear. He was thankful to be arrested.

However despite turning his life around, Eugene never lost his rather smug ways, which Rapunzel supposed was the reason she was attracted to him. Deep down though he was sensitive and kind, though his cocky attitude did grate on Rapunzel and others at some points, but Rapunzel loved everything about him. He was significantly older than her, being in his early thirties, while she was in her mid twenties. Rapunzel met him while he was off duty at a coffee shop when she was 22 years old and he was 29. It was quite the meeting if Rapunzel did say so herself.

Rapunzel walked into the coffee shop that was not too far from her apartment. She was tired. Dead tired. She had graduated from college only a few weeks ago, and was struggling at her new job. She was a star employee; it was just that at the moment, she was struggling to find a lick of inspiration. She had plenty of memories to choose from, but she wanted something different. She just wasn't sure exactly what to do. She was a happy person; she liked drawing happy things. Anything else reminded her of gothel and the less happier times of her life, which was obviously something she despised. But she wasn't sure what to do because her boss said he wanted something exotic looking for s new painting to start the new room that they were building for the studio. As the senior artist, Rapunzel was charged with basically getting the look down and designing the overall aesthetic. Needless to say, despite her artistic skills, she was having trouble deciding on what exactly to do that would please her boss.

So in order to clear her head on this fine morning before attempting to figure out what to do for her job. She loved tea, unlike the majority of her friends. Joseph loved hot chocolate and Merida liked coffee in the morning. It was one of the things that made the three a bit of an odd trio. But they were friends and they loved hanging out with each other, at least when they were together.

She stood in line, vaguely annoyed and grumpy at the moment. She loved morning, but she hated that she was in this situation. She just wanted to have a good day. Right now she envied Joseph and Merida. They were off traveling in Europe together doing who knows what. She remembered that they wanted to have some time to spend with each other before returning to the 'real world' as Merida put it. Well, Rapunzel couldn't blame them; they had been together for a while. Plus, Joseph had already found a job thanks to some connections he had from the army, while Merida had been working at a fitness center since the year started. However they had both been granted time off for a while, so the two of them decided that it would be best to be alone for a while.

If only she knew how wrong that idea was.

After what seemed like years, Rapunzel managed to get to the front of the line and asked for a cup of tea. After managing to get it, Rapunzel made her way to a table and sat down, taking careful sips of her tea, since it was still very hot. She gave a slight smile. This was pretty much her morning every day of the week. There really wasn't a lot of excitement in her life, not that she was really asking for it. She had plenty of fun during her college days, mostly thanks to Merida. Besides she enjoyed the piece and quiet that she had during most days. It gave her a lot more time to think and design her paintings and murals than it would normally give her. Plus when she was alone she could sing to herself and not disturb anyone else.

She took another sip of her tea, glancing out of the window. To her surprise, she noticed a police car with a man inside. He was some years older than her, with slick brown hair and a goatee. Judging by the outfit, he was obviously a police officer. And he looked kind of tired, since he was lumped down in his seat. Rapunzel frowned, maybe this man worked to hard. She smiled and went back into the line, getting a cup of coffee and a bagel. She went outside and strolled up to the police car, knocking on the window. The man inside jumped, looking out the window. He looked surprised to see a young woman with a cup of coffee and a bagel. Carefully he opened the window and said "yes?"

Rapunzel smiled "hello officer… I noticed that you looked kind of tired this morning, so I brought you some breakfast." She held up the breakfast, which he graciously took. "Thanks blondie!" he said

Rapunzel blushed, not really used to nicknames. Merida and Joseph took to calling her Punz in college, which just sort of stuck after that. But Blondie? That was a new one. She cleared her throat "your welcome… officer Fitzherbert"

"Eugene…" the man said, before handing her a card "if you ever want to talk, just give me a call." He said giving her a wink. He then got a call on his radio, forcing him to drive off.

Rapunzel watched him go smiling. She then looked at the card. She was definitely going to see him again.

That was the first of many meetings that had occurred over the course of the next few months. There were times where they would just talk for hours (if that happened Eugene would actually be in the coffee shop, rather than in his car; he was off duty on those days) and Rapunzel came to enjoy the mans company every day that he would show up.

Of course this was how Rapunzel learned that he was in a gang in his younger days, but she didn't mind. Sure it bothered her at first, given that she grew up with more… people that didn't do that, but according to him, he turned his life around. Rapunzel definitely admired him for that. She had done the same. Not as drastic of course, but it was still a change when she had Gothel arrested when she was still a teenager.

It wasn't exactly the same, but the two still had something in common to talk about every once in a while. Strangely, she never did find out that Eugene and Joseph had met during their time in the military, at least until Anna's wedding, though after asking, she found out why. They had met during a field trip as apparently they went to different schools, and Eugene had played the prank while on said field trip which was his way of making it memorable, at least that's what he said.

Clearly however he still didn't regret it, despite the broken nose that he later received for it. Well to be quite honest, Rapunzel had laughed after seeing that, because of two things. Eugene complained that his smolder was broken and two, no one who painted him (besides Rapunzel), could get his nose right after that. It drove him insane whenever some one brought it up. To Rapunzel it was hilarious. Eugene got along famously with her friends and family. At her wedding, and later on Anna's he was the life of the party, entertaining everyone (he was a great story teller, real or not) well after the weddings were over. She was happy about that. When she was engaged, she was afraid her parents wouldn't accept him, but they honestly didn't mind his past, only his present. So long as he didn't hurt Rapunzel (which he never did) they were accepting of him. They treated him like part of the family since they had met him they were initially concerned that his job would take away from Rapunzel, but despite the horrors Eugene faced, there really wasn't anything that was bad between him and his wife.

A bad day for them would usually result in Rapunzel smacking Eugene with a frying pan, which everyone was pretty sure hurt Eugene, but either Eugene didn't feel pain or actually enjoyed it because he got hit with the frying pan every other day. He never could lift a finger to Rapunzel; it was just impossible.

Of course, Eugene never complained when Rapunzel did this; he loved her very much. Before her, his life was pretty bland, dedicated solely to himself. After getting to know her, he found a new dream in her and decided that after years and years of asking did they finally get married. of course, Rapunzel was more than ready to date Eugene after spending some weeks having a morning drink with him and learning more about him.

Now they were happily married (though not for much longer than Anna and Kristoff) and lived near a sunny beach in a house graciously given to them by Rapunzel's own parents, complete with a forest nearby where Rapunzel would go whenever she needed some inspiration. It was quite quant and really all they ever needed. True they didn't spend much time in the house, since Eugene went to work and Rapunzel went to the art studio in town, but they did enjoy it whenever they were there. Otherwise they would go to the annual lantern festival that coincidently was held on Rapunzel's birthday. It was one of their favorite dating spots, even without the lanterns and that was where Eugene proposed to her. Needless to say, Rapunzel was pretty happy.

The only problem that Rapunzel had was not being able to contact Joseph (who was traveling the world at the time) and Merida (who was dealing with her mothers condition) and get them to come to the wedding. But in all honesty, the wedding had been fairly small, with only Rapunzel's parents and family, while Eugene had a few buddies from the police force with him (Eugene had grown up an orphan, hence why he was in a gang earlier in life; he had no one else but those he grew up with in the orphanage). So despite her disappointment, maybe it had worked out. Merida could have gotten drunk and Joseph, despite having gone to Anna's wedding, really disliked long parties (though he did of course make exceptions) and Rapunzel's had been an extravaganza, even with her small family

But of course, that had been in the past, now Eugene and Rapunzel had been married for almost a year, had two pets Maximus a canine that Eugene had been paired with in Narcotics, and Pascal a cat that Rapunzel had rescued some years before. Life was great for them. The four got along well (though Eugene would swear that both of their pets preferred Rapunzel over him any day of the week.)

Despite the fact that Rapunzel had a happy life though, she was still concerned over the fact that her two best friends and cousin had created a very wide rift between them. Even worse Rapunzel knew that it was partially her fault. Elsa was right. Kelly was not her secret to keep. Merida had asked her multiple times over the years to keep Kelly a secret, no matter what. Joseph of course, was oblivious to Merida's pregnancy obviously because she never told him and Merida had wanted it to stay that way because she was angry with herself.

Rapunzel could still remember that moment when she found out Merida was pregnant, not long after she returned from her trip in Scotland.

Rapunzel was in the same café that she always had been over the course of her art career. She had returned home looking for a job, having come hoping to work in the cities art studio, which was the largest art studio in the world. But Merida had called her saying that she was returning home early from her trip around the world. That was strange. She and Joseph had left several months ago, right after graduation. They planned to return during the new years or at least some time close to that. But instead Merida had returned here. The question was though… why? She… were she and joseph having problems? That seemed so wrong. When they had left, Joseph and Merida had been the perfect couple. They had disagreements but they never seemed irreconcilable to the point where they had to break up. so what was Merida's deal? When she called she seemed scared, which was something new to Rapunzel. Merida was always so strong, but today she seemed so afraid and worried

Well, Merida did say that she had to tell Rapunzel something important, so Rapunzel was probably going to end up getting some answers out of Merida. Of course, Merida being afraid was something new, so this meeting was something that seemed a little more unpredictable than Rapunzel was used too.

Rapunzel had already been waiting on Merida for a few minutes. Merida was never one to be on time unless she had to be, so…

Luckily Merida walked into the café and sat down across from Rapunzel. Her usual smile was now tight lipped and pensive, as if unsure exactly what she was going to say. Rapunzel bit her lip. "Hi…" she whispered. It had been a while since they had seen each other and given the change in mood, Rapunzel was not at all sure what to say. If Merida was scared, Rapunzel was nervous.

Merida nodded "hi Punz…" Merida said, her voice barely above a whisper. She ran a hand across her stomach. Rapunzel stared at Merida. "Merida… what's wrong. Your never like this…"

Merida sighed; "Rapunzel… you and Joseph never dated… so you don't know much about…" she trailed off.

Rapunzel shook her head "no Merida… I did like him growing up, but we never dated… you were his first girlfriend… but what does this have to do with your call?" she asked

Merida sighed "I screwed up Punz… My mom and I got into an argument over my… Vacation with Joseph… she wanted me to return home and start taking my life seriously… We fought for ages… I ended up just hanging up on her… then I.." she blushed a heavy scarlet that matched her hair. She rubbed a hand over her stomach

Rapunzel of course, being as innocent as could be, did not catch on. She stared blankly at Merida who was really hoping that she didn't have to end up spelling out exactly what she had done with Joseph… Why she had called Rapunzel in the first place. Unfortunately she had forgotten that Rapunzel was the most innocent girl she had ever come to meet.

"I slept with him!" She whispered harshly. Rapunzel felt her mouth drop open and her own cheeks flamed to the point where she looked like a lantern herself. Images of… that! Were the last thing she wanted to think about! Especially if it was with her friends in mind.

"What!" she screamed.

Merida sighed "Don't make me repeat myself Punz.." She moaned.

Rapunzel was not sure what to say. She never thought that she would even end up in a situation where she would be talking about what went on in another person's bed. She her self never did such things. In fact… this was the last thing that she was expecting to hear!

But of course, Rapunzel didn't realize what Merida was actually talking about. Merida. I'm not exactly the type of girl to gossip on things like that… I mean Joseph is my friend. I don't want to talk to you about…

"Rapunzel I'm pregnant!" Merida cried.

Rapunzel's mouth dropped pen. Preg… preg.. Baby! "You're pregnant!" Rapunzel repeated. Joseph got Merida pregnant!"

"Yes!" Merida said " I ran… He doesn't know…"

Rapunzel was shocked. Why wouldn't she have told him? "Merida…"

Merida shook her head " Please Punzie… don't tell him…"

Rapunzel looked at her shocked. How could she not tell him?

It had taken some convincing, but eventually, Rapunzel gave in and never told Joseph the truth. It broke her heart, but it ended up happening the way it did. So now here she was with her husband hoping that everything would go well with her friends.

Eugene looked at his wife, who was glancing absentmindedly in the yard "blondie… he said Rapunzel looked at him. Eugene was incredibly helpful… "Eugene, I'm worried about my friends."

Eugene gave her a grin "I'm sure they've got it covered Rapunzel. From what you've told me, both of them are very responsible… If not as charming as me…" He said with a cocky smile.

Rapunzel laughed and shook her head "Eugene… she said with a smile. She wanted to believe him… But she wasn't sure how they were doing right now.

She looked at the sky and smiled "Joseph…" She whispered

next time… stay tuned...