What is it with me and going from light hearted to angst in about a chapter? Seriously, for every happy one, there is also one that can be upsetting. This chapter is just like that...

oh well… Can't be helped...

To say that Merida and Joseph were feeling quite awkward was a gross understatement. It was practically a taboo. Neither Joseph nor Merida could look each other in the eye without blushing and clearing their throats in an attempt to ease the tension. Unfortunately the tension was so thick, you couldn't shoot an arrow in it. It would break.

That being said, Merida wished that it hadn't felt as good as it looked. Despite watching the video and being horrified by the events that had taken place, she had to admit that it made her hot and bothered (she would assume that the same happened to Joseph). Despite not having been in a relationship in the time that she had been a mother, Merida had no regrets about it. it was just that this video made her remember how joseph had made her feel during the first and only time that they had ever been in bed.

Unfortunately she hated that she almost slept with him that night. Despite her irritation over the fact that she ended things with him, she would have hated him being angry with her for effectively ruining his current relationship with Elsa over a couple of drinks of wine. It would destroy any chance at a friendship between them, as well as any hopes that Kelly would have for her father being in her life.

Merida knew when a battle was over, no matter who the loser was (despite her stubbornness on the matter.) she wanted to see both Joseph and Kelly happy now. if that meant seeing the father of her child marry another woman, then so be it. Kelly was happy just to meet her father. At least she liked Elsa (even if Elsa was still warming up to Kelly.)

And Joseph was capable as a father, it seemed. In the week and a half that he and Kelly had been together, he was slowly learning the ropes from Merida. If anything, it would be good practice for when Joseph and Elsa had any kids. Originally the thought had made Merida sick. The idea of Joseph and Elsa was upsetting because…well that's what Merida had wanted for herself. But after her heart to heart with him, she actually wouldn't mind it as much. Kelly was a handful as it was. Seeing Joseph with multiple kids would be amusing. As well, Kelly would be quite glad to have siblings (even if they were half siblings.) she would be quite glad to share her experiences on mother hood with Elsa, that is if Elsa ever forgave her. Merida couldn't blame her. It was Merida's fault that this was happening in the first place. Granted Joseph was to blame as well, but Merida was sure that Elsa was going to be much more forgiving to him than she was going to be for Merida.

Elsa was quite nice, despite Merida's original misgivings about her when they saw each other at the party. So if there was a chance that they could be friends, Merida would want to try at least for civil sake.. Elsa was certainly capable of that.

Joseph would no doubt return to Elsa following the talk with Merida's lawyers involving the custody of Kelly. Since Joseph and Merida lived quite a distance from each other, Joseph wasn't sure what to do. Merida had built a life for Kelly in Merida's original hometown, where as Joseph had a life in Arendelle with Elsa. The reasoning was that Kelly shouldn't be forced to be uprooted for such a long drive in between her parents. It wasn't exactly the best situation and it would no doubt put a strain on Kelly. So one of the two would have to move. Merida worked at a gym so it was more likely that she would have to be the one to move because Joseph obviously had to work at his company. The issue was Merida's mother. She needed to be there for her. Merida's father worked late hours and the boys were young. So Merida was generally the only one who could look after her. Sure Maudie could do it, but still there was that need for at least one of them to help Elinor because they loved her.

How long Elinor had was a mystery. Generally speaking they had given her at least six months to live. But the Dunbroch women were stubborn. She had already been fighting for almost a year and there was no sign of her slowing down, at least to the degree that the doctors were expecting her to be. Of course that could change at any moment, which was what they were worrying about.

So between those problems, it was apparent that the two needed to be closer to each other, but the responsibilities that they were having kept them from doing so, more Joseph then Merida, but it was still a mess.

In time it would most likely be better, but that didn't stop the problems from happening. Merida did not want Elinor to die for the sake of her daughter's future. Far from it in fact! The two had been at war ever since Merida hit high school age and it only mended ironically because of Kelly and her affliction. So with only a few years of having a nice relationship with her mother, Merida did not want to watch her mother suffer and die until an older age.

But only fate would decide that. Granted Merida had always believed in changing fate, so there was a chance that Elinor could do the same, since she was just as stubborn as Merida was.

Merida knew that Elinor would never give up until the very end; it was just how she was. It was just very painful watching her die. She had been doing better with the constant therapy; she had been seeing many different doctors, just to deal with her worsening condition. It was working, but not fast enough in any ones opinion.

Even so, Elinor was taking it rather well. She never complained about her condition and instead, took in it stride walking with the same grace an authority as she always did. She had never let anything stop her before, so why let this do that to her

She still had some appointments to make following the whole ordeal with Kelly, to which Merida was hoping would be the end of her suffering, in the most positive of ways.

But she could worry about that later. At the moment, she was with Kelly and Joseph. Kelly wanted to have a tea party and since the boys were at school and everyone else was at work, which left her parents to be the unfortunate victims to the 3 year old. Well considering Joseph and Merida were almost 26 years old, they were no doubt going to be annoyed out of their minds. Of course, Kelly was their daughter, so they just smiled and graciously accepted the 'tea' that Kelly was serving (it was just air so that Kelly wouldn't make a mess). While Merida could understand exactly what Kelly was thinking Joseph was still trying to understand. Tea parties. He hated parties. Of course this wasn't exactly a party of any sort, but how did little girls find this enjoyable. Didn't they like coloring?

He never did understand woman, but if woman were hard to understand, little girls were impossible. But of course he did love his daughter, so he just sat there happily drinking the air. He would have preferred something to drink of course, like water, but Merida told him to sit down and use his imagination.

Kelly of course was watching her parents and having a great time with it. She wanted to spend as much time as possible with them, considering that her father was probably not going to stay. Despite her relatively young age, Kelly was kind of smart (a wee genius as Fergus would put it). The angel that her father was with, Elsa.. Was going to be her stepmother. Kelly wasn't sure how to take that. On one hand, she liked Elsa and thought she was nice. On the other hand, weren't stepmothers… not nice? In many books that her mother gave her that's what happened. Well, in Kelly's mind Elsa would be a nice angel of a stepmother. She certainly looked like an angel.

But, weren't mommies and daddies supposed to get married? That's how it was like in the fairy tales her mother told her every other night before going to sleep. She did try and question her mother on the matter and Merida simply said "your dad and I do love each other, but we make better friends. Besides, don't you like Elsa?" it was kind of confusing, and while she did like Elsa, Kelly just thought that it would be better if her parents were married.

"So daddy… Are you enjoying your tea?" she asked him. Joseph just smiled. "of course Kelly." He said. Kelly then looked at her mother, "mommy?" she asked. Merida laughed, "it's the best tea I've ever had." She told Kelly as she took another sip.

Merida had dealt with a lot of instances like this over the past few years. Well ever since Kelly could walk and talk. She was quite the bundle of energy, which she no doubt inherited from her (Joseph was the same as a child, but not to the same degree Merida was; Merida had Maudie bouncing off the walls more often than not.)

As joseph sat there he couldn't help but watch how at ease Merida seemed to be with Kelly. She had raised her after all. But what was odd about that was that Merida seemed very happy about it. He remembered a conversation that they had during there college days where he Rapunzel and Merida discussed the idea of future children at one point. Needless to say, there were a lot of different opinions on the matter.

Rapunzel and her friends were sitting in a park not to far from the college. Joseph and Merida were with her, holding hands and whispering cute things to one another, not that Rapunzel knew that. She had honestly been shocked when she head from Merida that she and Joseph were dating after his 21st birthday party.

Not that Rapunzel minded it at all. She was happy for the both of them. Joseph was her friend. She did have a minor (reciprocated) crush on him, and even though they tried to go out once (it was a trip to the park in their hometown), it didn't work out because they saw each other as family more than anything else. They were just glad they didn't ever kiss, because Rapunzel was sure it would have been like kissing her cousin or something. So they never really dated each other, since they never really did anything romantic

Just seeing them though was enough to make her smile. Joseph was so scared of women and having his heart broken in general. But with Merida it seemed he had found his match. She was tougher and rougher than he was, but was also very kind, which was something that Joseph liked. They also had a lot in common, which helped immensely. They had similar tastes in movies and books, giving them a lot to talk about.

If they got married… Rapunzel let out a giggle, unintentionally causing the young couple to look at her. She blushed. "I'm sorry." She said hiding her face in her hair. "Its just that you look so adorable…" she whispered, her face glowing in mortification. Merida let out a laugh "lass… its ok! I'm glad to be with this wee lamb!" she punched Joseph in the shoulder. Joseph yelped, rubbing his shoulder while giving Merida a glare. Merida of course laughed it off.

Rapunzel giggled once again "I would really like to see your children!" she said with a squeal, before clamping her mouth shut, slightly disturbed by what she just said.

Merida's mouth dropped open, while Joseph's eyes widened. If there was one thing they hadn't expected, especially coming from Rapunzel, it was the idea of children. Rapunzel was like a child herself; she never spoke of having a baby. She just wanted to get through her life one step at a time. So the idea of Joseph and Merida in bed was a little tad disturbing, at least when implied by a third party. Joseph and Merida had never even discussed the matter. They were still very young, only being 21 and 20 years old (Merida's birthday wasn't very far.) plus unless Merida was the one asking, Joseph did not want to be the one to initiate it because the last thing he wasn't was a severely upset Merida.

Merida went red and she looked at Rapunzel "Punz, are you serious, we haven't even discussed marriage what makes you think that we were discussing children of all things?" she almost screeched

At this one, both Rapunzel and Joseph looked at Merida bereft of any and all words that they could have said in response to that. Marriage? They weren't even out of college yet, why would they even discuss marriage. They had only been dating for a few weeks. Sure they had none each other for a few years at this point but they had only been dating each other for a few weeks. Surely that was not even enough time to even consider buying a ring, let alone discuss it with Merida's family. He hadn't even met them yet!

Merida wanted him to meet them (they would no doubt be thrilled, hopefully that Merida had met a man who could treat her they way she deserved to be treated) that being said joseph was scared. He never ever had to meet anyone's parents before. Merida scared him as it was. Just how bad would her family be? If he managed to anger them, he might as well bury himself into the ground.

Rapunzel blushed "I'm sorry Merida I didn't mean anything by it." she whispered. She really hadn't. She was just so excited by the prospect of seeing her good friend finally get a date. She had tried so hard in the past to help him while she was dating, but it never seemed to work.

Merida shook her head. Of course you didn't lass. Just don't expect any nieces or nephews."

Yeah the three had grown into quite the trio. Merida was like the older sister to Rapunzel, while Joseph was the older brother she never had. They were a family. And Rapunzel wanted to keep it that way.

If only they knew how difficult things would have become between the three of them. Joseph and Merida were parents, but instead of being married, they were partially estranged due to the lies that had been created, while Rapunzel was sad that she had helped Merida in creating those lies, rather than trying to mend their old relationship.

Joseph knew that Rapunzel meant well. his relationship with Elsa was important to her. but he was angry with her for hiding Kelly from him. He couldn't yell at her of course, but he had expressed his disappointment in her.

Joseph watched as Elsa and Anna left, his heart breaking. The best thing that ever happened to him was now gone. Because of the two woman standing beside him. Merida… the mother of his child; the first woman he had ever fallen in love with. She hid their child from him, until the worst possible second.

Then there was Rapunzel. His sister… his best friend since childhood. the one woman that he thought he could trust. Lied to him for the past three years about his daughter. He stomped away from the two woman making his way over to a tree, before punching it so hard that his knuckles began bleeding after the first punch.

"Joseph!" the two girls screamed rushing to his side

"Don't!" he growled. He turned to Rapunzel his eyes showing betrayal and pain, tears streaming down his face. "I fell in love with Elsa, your cousin! I was happy! I thought that I could have everything. Then I find out that that I'm a father! I missed three years of her life because Merida didn't tell me. But to find out that you! Of all people. Hid her from me. Why Rapunzel?" his voice cracked and he fell to his knees sobbing.

Elsa… could she ever forgive him?

Rapunzel felt tears go down her own face. He was right. She had betrayed him and Elsa because Merida had asked her to. She knew that Joseph was upset and she didn't want to make it worse. She fell to her own knees wrapping her arms around Joseph. He didn't even move "Joseph… I'm sorry…" she whispered before dissolving into her own tears.

What a terrible friend she was. Elsa was gone because of her. She had lied to two of the people she cared about. And now, what they had might never be recovered.

Eugene, who was busy with the triplets, noticed his wife's condition. Concerned he ran towards them, but Merida stopped him, blocking his path before dragging him away "leave them." she whispered. She and Joseph had already reconciled. Now Rapunzel needed to do the same.

After Rapunzel left, he felt bad for taking his anger out on her. Sure she did have part of the blame on her, but in the end, it was really him and Merida that had created this mess. He did call her later on and apologized, but he still felt bad.

Now almost two weeks later and they were still trying to clean it up. He put down the teacup, sat up from his chair and walked back to his room. He slammed the door shut and sat on his bed.

"Elsa" he whispered.

next time…Hopefully much happier times...