Don't Let Go

Part Four

(NOTE: When Elsa sings in this chapter, it is to the tune of her part in the song "For the First Time In Forever".)

When Rapunzel wakes up, Eugene is still asleep. She doesn't want to bother him, so she slowly creeps out of bed, throws her clothes on, and heads out of their room silently.  She meets up with her mother who is sitting at the table in the Royal Dining Hall.

"Good morning Rapunzel," Queen Arianna says, a full plate of breakfast foods sitting in front of her. "Your breakfast is waiting for you."

"Thank you Mother, but I'm not really ready for breakfast just yet," Rapunzel says. "Um, where's Father?"

Arianna immediately sees that her daughter realizes something is up. "He's outside in the garden," she says, a frown appearing on her face.

"Okay, thanks!" Rapunzel gives her mother a quick hug, and then runs off to find her father.

Arianna stares after her daughter for a moment. Had that been a small patch of blonde hair she saw above Rapunzel's right ear?

Rapunzel finds her dad out in the garden, just like her mother said. He is just wandering around, staring at all the flowers with his hands folded behind his back.

"Father?" Rapunzel says. King Frederic is slightly startled, but once he sees his daughter he smiles. Rapunzel can tell that it is a forced smile. "Daddy, I can tell something is going on," she says. "When I first arrived you two were so happy, and when I got married you both were even happier. But now you just seem so sad all of a sudden. Something is wrong with both you and Mother, and I want to know what it is!"

The forced smile on the king's face fades. "Rapunzel dear, we don't want to burden you with our troubles," he says.

"But you're my parents, and I love you," Rapunzel says. "And when people love each other, they don't just ignore a problem when they know there is one."

Frederic sighs, taking his daughter's hands. "Maybe someday, my beautiful daughter," he says, squeezing her hands lovingly. "Maybe someday."

Rapunzel is disappointed, but honestly she expected as much. This isn't the first time that she has tried to ask her father what is wrong, and it isn't the first time that he has shut her down. But she is determined to find out what is going on with them... eventually.

Her father kisses her gently on the forehead, and then lets go of her hands. "Now please dear, leave me to enjoy the garden in silence."

"Yes Father," Rapunzel says. But as she begins to turn around and leave, Frederic suddenly stops her.

"Wait, what is that?" He asks.

"What is what?" Rapunzel replies, turning back around to face him.

"There, above your ear," he says, reaching out to touch her hair. "It's... it's a strand of blonde hair!"

Rapunzel gasps. "What?!" She practically shouts. Without saying another word, she takes off running away from the garden to find the nearest mirror. Once she finds one, she looks in it and sees that what her father had said is true.

"Hey, where's the fire?" Eugene says as he approaches her from behind.

Rapunzel grabs the lock of blonde hair between her fingers and holds it out as long as it will stretch, which isn't very long at all, for her husband to see. "This!" She says, still freaking out. "Do you see this?!"

Eugene looks at the blonde hair. So it wasn't just a dream... "Yes, I see it," he says. "I noticed it earlier this morning, but I thought it wasn't real."