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Literature Text
Chapter 12
"Do you know if the Last Rights have been administ-"
"While he was still conscious, yes. I'm not an idiot." Rapunzel snapped before anyone else could answer. Dr. Fredrics jumped, which served him right in her opinion. He scared her all the time, wasn't it her turn now? No one had seen her come in - her mother must have been too tall for him to see over her head. She knew that her father certainly was.
"Rapunzel..." Her father started. He was either dragging out whatever he was going to say or he was leaving it hanging, Rapunzel couldn't tell which; but she saw that there were tears in his eyes. Even her father had tears in his eyes.
"No!" She barked, tears ready to spill out of her own eyes when she thought that she had already shed them all.
"Princess. You must face the facts." Fredrics reasoned, frustrated and frustrating.
"What facts?!" Rapunzel practically screamed at him. She hadn't been gone for twenty minutes, only leaving to freshen up - well, actually to avoid Dr. Fredrics, but she wouldn't admit that.
"Darling, he's barely breathing." He mother answered. Her voice was just a windy whisper, she thought it might be better coming from her rather than from Fredrics.
"Once he wasn't even doing that." Rapunzel insisted. Her father placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Dear, that was a miracle. You can't expect-"
"Yes I can!" She shouted back at her father without realizing how high her voice had gotten. Breathing hard, she stepped away from them and looked them all up and down. She wouldn't believe it. She couldn't. Somewhere deep in her heart there was hope. Irrational, of course, but hope just the same. Was that not the best kind of hope? He could still pull through. He could. "Mama!" She sobbed, searching for some sort of hope or affirmation in her mother's face. But like the night before, she gave her none.
"I will come in again after a few hours, your highnesses." Fredrics whispered, starting slowly to leave the room. Her mother and father nodded solemnly. No one would side with her. Eugene lay in the room behind them, so close to her and this time she couldn't rely on his help. This time it was her alone fighting for him. In the tower she could see his eyes, she could hear his voice even when he told her not to save him. She had had her hair, and Pascal. She didn't even have Pascal anymore, the dear little friend. She wasn't about to torment her children by dragging them into this. "He's not going to die, mama. He just can't!" Rapunzel whispered and her voice trembled. Isabell didn't reply. She bit her lip and looked at the floor, backing away just slightly. "Papa?" She gasped. Her father met her eyes for just a moment, but his face just registered pain. Pain for his daughter and her children, for himself and for his queen, for the heart of his kingdom. Rapunzel suddenly felt a deep pang in her heart for her father and what he was facing. The entire fate of his kingdom, even though she was still there, loomed uncertainly before him - more uncertain than when Corona's princess was lost for eighteen years. She shared her father's fears - would she be a fit ruler with her husband torn away from her? But how would despairing amend the situation? How could they live without hope?
"Very well, then." She whispered. "Abandon him. But I won't." She promised, shaking her head. Rapunzel pushed her way past them into her room, shutting the doors finally behind her and leaning against them wearily. She closed her eyes, letting the tears spill out and stream down her cheeks. Why Eugene? Of all people, why him? Was it to test him? Was it to test her? The princess made her way slowly to the bed where Eugene was lying very still. His breath was very short and shallow - it sounded almost forced. He was still trying. He was still fighting desperately. Rapunzel crawled onto their bed, laying down at his head and gazing at his face. His whiskers were thicker than she had ever seen them and they covered the entire bottom half of his face. It looked so odd. But they also partially covered how thin and sallow his cheeks were, how sharply his cheek bones rose under his skin. Rapunzel leaned forward and placed a kiss on them. He stirred very slightly when she did so, and the princess was sure that she had seen the slightest smile on his lips.
"I'm still here, Eugene." She whispered.
"No change." Fredrics whispered, apparently trying to keep it away from Rapunzel. She hadn't heard him, but he had left the door open and she could see them. Since he had left the room quickly, she had a pretty good idea of what was going on and crossed the distance without being seen. It was already late afternoon, going into evening. Rapunzel saw her mother wringing her hands and biting her lips together. She must have Flynn watching his siblings. As long as he kept an eye on the two youngest she had nothing to worry about. Those two were trouble! And if their father - if Eugene did...her dead father was the last thing that Rapunzel wanted Estelle to happen in upon.
"I no longer know what to say, your majesties." She heard him explain as she came closer. "Eugene can perhaps hold on for another night, but I think that he will not."
"You mean that..." the queen started but she was unable to finish her question. She had heard it that morning, and had expected it for longer, but when it came to saying good bye to her son-in-law, when it came to seeing her daughter torn to shreds and her grandchildren fatherless...how could they get through it. How?
Rapunzel stayed behind the door. She couldn't force herself to join them. She just listened to what they did not dare tell her. Things that they knew that she wouldn't listen to.
"I can not lie." He said softly, shaking his head. "There is no hope, majesties. The fever has not broken in nearly four weeks. His strength has been taxed to its limit. Even with a strong will to live, I fear he can not last. I believe too, that his heart has been damaged by the disease. Even if he could survive..."
"Oh, my dear Eugene! My poor baby Rapunzel!" The queen whispered. Rapunzel could tell that she had a hand at her chest and the other hand gone to cover her mouth when she heard a single sob. The princess did not blame her mother. Eugene had become her son, even before he had married Rapunzel. She rarely thought of how much others had come to love and respect him, even before his lineage was known, even when he was merely an orphaned nobody. It was not only she who would take a great wound at his parting. No! How could she think like that?! She admonished herself be striking her fist against the wall and suddenly the conversation on the other side, which she had not heard any more of, stopped. She stood still, breathing hard and trembling as her father came to the other side of the door.
"Rapunzel?" he whispered.
"Yes, papa?"
"Did you...were you listening to us?"
"Only for a little, papa." she whispered. The king didn't know what part of the conversation she had heard, the devastating prognosis or, almost worse, the inevitable funeral arrangements that he and her mother were discussing. Queen Isabell came around the corner and touched her daughter's hand gently. It was done. Over.
"I am sorry, dear." Her mother gasped. Rapunzel's arms dropped down and her face studied the floor. She understood why they must talk as they were but - how could they?! On the edge of her thoughts she saw that terrible nightmare; a fine black coffin, surrounded by a guard, his friends. Estelle trying to break from her hold to se him. To see Eugene, Eugene who wouldn't be there anymore. Only his wasted body. She shook her head to drive those thoughts away. No. No, please, God! Please, it just can't happen like that! Just-just a tiny last bit of the sun. Oh God, how can I live without him!
"Where are my children?" She whispered. It was a quiet whisper. Quiet, her mother thought, with despair and defeat.
"I brought them into their rooms, dear. They're waiting." It was all Rapunzel could do to keep herself from screaming in anguish. They had brought the children to say good-bye to their father. Well that was not what Rapunzel had in mind. Without another word she stormed out, down the hall to the room where her children were sitting silently - and dressed in black. She stifled a sob when she saw them and they came running to her.
"See dada !" Estelle demanded of her mother. The oldest two looked on with downcast faces, because they weren't foolish. They knew what was happening when their grandmother had designated black garb that morning. Rapunzel shushed her.
"Quiet, darling. Daddy needs to sleep." She chided. She looked up at the rest of them who were old enough to understand what was happening. Flynn looked down at his hands and back up at her. Leora just stood there, staring forward. She was concentrating on not crying and it looked to Rapunzel like that's what she had been doing the whole day. "Let's go to the chapel." She suggested. Leora glanced at her big brother, who nodded. Their mother was trying to keep things normal for them, but they knew that there was something different. Eugene caught his mother's eye, just the look on his face asking her the dreaded question. Rapunzel's face softened just a little bit and she shook her head, moving her mouth to say, "No." She wasn't going to say 'not yet'. She hoped - she was praying - that it wouldn't happen. They followed their mother to the chapel, a sweet train of youngsters and a whispering toddler in her arms. She could not lose the love of her life, she couldn't take so many losses in her life. Not now. They filed in through the doors behind her. Leora had her mother's eye and was always excited to see what different way the sun came in through the medieval stained glass no matter what pained her heart. Colored lights of reds and blues, purples, greens and gold rippled through the air, painting the floors and cushions and chairs. Rapunzel touched one of the windows, one that her and Eugene's had often sat next to; praying for their unborn children, all of them, and grieving the two that had been lost to them. She clutched the little one's hand a bit tighter for a moment and knelt down. The window was the Nativity, Christmas; a special holiday for both of them since neither had true Christmases growing up. The youngest two plopped down on the floor together; pointing and talking in exaggerated whispers - their typical chapel practice. Estelle had her hand next to Matthew's mouth, just in case he got too loud apparently. She was staring at the stained glass and making an apparently serious point to her older brother, who merely nodded. The oldest three prayed. Eugene - Flynn had his hands on the back of his neck and his head bowed so that his arms were covering his face. Leora was huddled on the floor with her knees tucked up to her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs with her hands clasped together and her head bowed. Rapunzel had seen her face when they came in. She knew that Leora was crying. Nicholas had his hands folded, his back straight, his eyes closed - but his lips puckered in and out and his fingers didn't stay quite still. He opened an eye once in a while to check on his littlest siblings, who were still whispering. And Rapunzel...Rapunzel could only stare up at the window and let the pain pour out of her heart. The window above her offered a strange amount of comfort, with St. Joseph covering the Madonna and Child under his great cloak. Just like Eugene. That was the first thought that came into her head, her husband covering his wife and newborn in the cold and letting himself freeze. She glanced over at the culprit Leora. That had been a birth to remember, and all she could see was Eugene's face, streaked with tears and desperate for both their lives. She felt that way now. She was just as helpless and desperate now as Eugene had been then. Strength. She needed strength! She sighed and gazed at the window again to focus on something else. She kept trying to pray, but her thoughts were everywhere. If only there was just a bit of the sun, the smallest bit left. Rapunzel saw the tiniest coil of gold in the corner of her eye and followed it over to the Holy Infant, surrounded in a brilliant burst of light. It was the sun, the sun that was everywhere in Corona - she had never realized that it was there too. Surrounding the nativity, surrounding the Child, surrounding them in the stars in the night sky...could it mean something? Just one more time, God. She prayed. One last time. Estelle suddenly popped up beside her with her beautiful, semi-innocent smile. She put her elbows on Rapunzel's lap and looked up at her with huge green eyes.
"Mite love dada." she whispered out of the blue. Rapunzel smiled - her first smile of the day - and brushed her baby's hair out if her face.
"He knows you do, darling." Rapunzel whispered. "Everything's going to be alright." Estelle grinned wider and climbed onto Rapunzel's lap, nestling into her chest.
She didn't know how long they prayed and she didn't hear the running or shouting in the hall outside. Suddenly the doors were thrown open by one of the young squires. Rapunzel started and her heart froze. Eugene. It had to be Eugene. The squire was breathing hard, like he had been all over the castle in a breakneck run, rendering his face impossible to read.
"Princess mam." He gasped. He looked up now with his brow furrowed and Rapunzel felt like her heart had been ripped out and thrown into her shoes.
"Yes?" She whispered.
"Princess, he's calling for you." Rapunzel let out a very small, relieved sob and set Estelle on the floor before pushing past the startled boy and racing for her room. If the doctor had told the boy to say this just to get her in there to tell her the worst, than there would be two funerals. Behind her the older children solemnly took their younger siblings in hand and brought them back to the bedroom. Mite held back for a moment, so Flynn picked her up and carried her out, not seeing how she smiled at the Nativity window like she had some secret as she waved good-bye.
Rapunzel nearly broke her neck getting to Eugene. She threw caution to the wind and barreled through the doors, past her mother and the physician, who had one hand on Eugene's wrist and a watch in the other one. Rapunzel was already on the bed, running her hands through his hair, feeling with some gratitude that he was still burning with fever - merely because that proved to her that he wasn't dead. His shirt was open and his chest was bare. Just another stab from Fredrics, saying that Eugene's heart was too weak to hear even through that thin layer. It was still strong. She could hear it! The doctor shook his head, carelessly dropping the sick man's arm back on the bed, reminding Rapunzel with a harsh stab of Gothel doing the same thing to Eugene. From her that had been to punish him. Rapunzel was pretty certain that Dr. Fredrics just didn't care.
"They said he called for me." She whispered, cradling his head and shoulders in her arms as she looked with longing into his closed eyes.
"He did." Her mother answered. "He even opened his eyes. He was looking for you."
"I'm sorry." She whispered into his hair, kissing his forehead. "I'm sorry I wasn't here." Rapunzel's mother just looked on, her heart breaking open to see her daughter like this. If he could have survived at all, the physician had told the queen that the damage done to his heart would kill him in a matter of a few years - probably less. Nimble, bright Eugene would have been an invalid for his last years, but if Rapunzel could have had him for just a while longer...it was neither here nor there.
"Your highness." Dr. Fredrics asked quietly. "What-"
"You can't do anything, so get out." Rapunzel ordered him in a low voice.
"Highness?" He questioned her, the absolute shock evident in his tone and his face.
"Please get out of my room." She corrected herself. "Now." Rapunzel added, looking up just enough to see the little man on the edge of her vision. Sounding terribly embarrassed, he cleared his throat, grabbed his jacket, and bowed several times backing out the whole way and almost running into the door. Rapunzel sighed and looked back down at Eugene, curling his longer hairs around her finger and stroking his thin face. The queen stood by, staring at her hands awkwardly before she very quietly cleared her throat.
"Rapunzel, sweet, do you want me to bring the children in to say...to say good night?" Rapunzel was silent for a long while, looking into her husband's face, searching it, as if she could talk with him; almost as if she was. Her mother didn't mean good night, of course. She wanted them to say good bye, but it just couldn't be like that. Finally she answered but without looking up, shaking her head.
"No." She said quietly. "No. They will see him in the morning." The queen looked for a long time at her daughter, her throat too tight to speak, to do anything but sob, so she backed out of the room and closed the doors.
And now at last Rapunzel was alone with him again. She gazed at him for a long time, stroking his hair. She thought of their lives together; the first time they met made her smile. She remembered seeing his face in the light of the lanterns for the lost princess, their journey together to knowing who they were, their wedding, the taste of his kiss and her reception of his deep love for her so many times. No man had ever loved like Eugene did! She saw his eyes aching to take the pain away as she gave birth to their children, and always she came back to recalling when his head was in her lap for the first time - when he had died there. He wouldn't this time. He couldn't. She kissed his face, his neck, his nose that had long since ceased to be a source of vanity. Then she propped a pillow behind her back. She would stay up the entire night.
It was a long night - one not broken once by Eugene's raving about something or someone. She really hadn't minded standing by his side the whole time. She was there for him. She needed to be there for him, just like he had always been there for her, in good times and in bad. There hadn't been...all that many bad times. But when there had been bad times; when they had suffered loss or when one or the other (alright, usually Eugene) had been ill or injured, even on the few occasions when they been at each other's throats - still they held on. They had gotten stronger. Her fingers traveled the length of his face, taking in every shape, every jutting, straight line and tears fell out of her eyes. Just tears now, they were nothing more.
"I want you to hold me one last time." She whispered, choking on the tears that had built there over the night of contemplating. "I want you to look into my eyes and know my name." But he was still and did not respond. She sobbed out a rush of tears, laying her head on his chest, not seeing the tiniest brilliant curls of light that blossomed out here and there... "Don't leave us." She finally begged him, running her hands over his warm chest. Warm. His chest was warm. Though she knew that she had felt the sun creeping up to touch her back, she suddenly felt something else. Rapunzel gasped, looking into that face, her heart torn at the thought of seeing it lifeless and the hand on her back belonging to her comforting mother or father. But instead Eugene - her Eugene Fitzherbert - was gazing at her; smiling a little weakly, but he was smiling.
"You know, there's this one brunette..." He breathed, his smile breaking into a grin.
"Eugene!" Rapunzel gasped as an elated sob broke out of her throat and she attacked his head in a furious embrace. He couldn't push himself up and hold her like had all those years ago, but his arm wrapped around her back and stroked her hair. Then she sat up, pulling him over onto her knees and kissing him like mad, not noticing or caring what his breath tasted like just at that moment. Eugene gasped - very softly - as if he was surprised; though he should have been used to suffocation by wife at this point. This time his lips curved in a smile. This time he kissed her back.
The morning had gotten on, and there was no sound coming from the sickroom. No one had had the courage to enter it. The couple's children were playing in their room, giggling and laughing softly, bringing a blush of life once more to the stony halls. The court physician steeled himself to enter the Fitzherbert's suite, opening the doors without knocking. The door to the bed chamber was closed, which did not surprise him. No doubt Prince Eugene had died during the night. He was certain that the princess would not have left him, and equally certain that she would be too distraught to call someone. The bed chamber was silent as he entered, the curtains drawn - he did not recall having drawn them the the night before. Perhaps the maids had; but there was no movement from Rapunzel when he walked in. Fredrics glanced at the bed and gave a start. There were two forms in the it, and his first thought was that the princess had killed herself in her grief. He raced over and was at the bedside before he heard soft breathing, deep and restful; and the breathing of two people. There were smiles on both of their lips. Rapunzel's head was laying on Eugene's bare chest over his beating heart. One of her hands was beneath her head, though not covering her ear, and the other was clasping Eugene's. He tripped backwards and barely saved himself from falling when he saw Eugene's fingers intertwined in the laces of her dress. They wouldn't have! Of course, they couldn't have. They were - ehem, never mind. The physician barely dared to touch Eugene's. Instead he touched the prince's neck, almost thinking it cold for a moment, he was so used to the fever. A pulse came, ready and strong. Fredrics was shocked, but that was it - sufficient for the moment. The fever had turned. As far as he could tell, Princess Rapunzel had her miracle.
Not wishing to impose on them anymore, he turned around to sneak out, only to meet the worried eyes of the queen and king together as they had rushed into the room. He was used to dispensing with bows and courtesies, so he had no problem at all covering her mouth when he saw her eyes wild. The king looked like he was going to deck him until he noticed that he was holding a finger over his lips and nodding for them to leave the room. Fredrics closed the door to the bed chamber quietly and walked to the other end of the room before facing the king and queen.
"What has happened?" The queen gasped. "Is Rapunzel ill now as well? I had thought, when I didn't see her sitting up..... I'm so afraid of what might have happened....."
"And I still insist that that kind of talk is ridiculous. She loves Eugene, yes, but she would not have been driven so mad as to forget her children!"
"Such things have happened, majesties," he said quite seriously. "But she is quite well." He added quickly when he saw that the queen looked like she was going to cry again
"And Eugene?" Nicholas asked, apprehensive but slightly eager.
"I do not know what happened," Fredrics replied, shaking his head incredulously, "but he broke the fever. I thought at first he might be dead, but his pulse beats as it should, and stronger then I ever would have thought that it could again."
"He's alright." The queen gasped, her hand flying to her bosom and her eyes closing in relief.
"Yes, your majesty. And if I did not know better I would have thought him ill for no longer then a few days. His breathing also seems strong. If I knew no better I would tell you that he had never contracted pneumonia."
"Thank God." Isabell breathed, leaning into her husband who held her as they both cried a little.
"Baby Jesus!" They heard an insistent little voice suddenly, making them laugh.
"What's that you say, Mite?" The queen chuckled, picking up her granddaughter and setting her on her hip.
"Baby Jesus!" She said matter-of-factly. "I tolded him I miss my dada. Flynn-"
"Eugene, dear. Your brother's name is Eugene." the queen chided, but the tot shook her head in vigorous opposition.
"Dada and Mite call him Flynn. Mite can't say Ugene, and Flynn can't play horsey for Mite!" She nodded, explaining patiiently to the foolish adults things that they could not understand. Just as suddenly her mood sobered. "Mite not wana see mama cries on dada when she so sad." Her baby lip jutted out as she shook her head. Her grandparents exchanged glances. Where had she been sneaking around? "Jesus' dada ina window just like my dada." She grinned. "With mmm mmm mmm ona chin!" She proceeded to rub her grandfather's hand with her soft baby chin, but they knew what she meant.
"Yes, dear, he is a little."
"Nope! Just like my dada."
"Alright, just like him." Her grandmother conceded. The little girl nodded in profuse agreement.
"But, dear, I don't understand what that has to do with your daddy."
"I tolded Him I gotta have a dada like He got. Maids said He want my dada, 'cause he sick, and if He want my dada, Mite want His."
"Estelle!"
"No, I Mite! He little just like Mite. He know Mite need dada." She grinned. "Wanna go." She proclaimed, straightening her legs so suddenly that she slid right out of the queen's grip and to the floor - exactly as she had intended. She was across the room and through the door before anyone could move to stop her, squealing and giggling as she ran toward the bed.
"Dada! Dada! Dada! Don't let 'em catch me!" She shrieked. It was still dark in the room, but there was enough light for them to see a pair of arms reach over and scoop up the screaming toddler as she came to the edge of the bed. And they heard something that it seemed like eternity since they had last heard it. Eugene growled.
It did take a ridiculous effort for him to hoist her onto the bed, but that didn't matter. He pretended to gobble her up first and laughed softly as he tickled her into hysterics; a feat that didn't take all that much energy or he likely could not have done it. Rapunzel smiled beside them, laughing with Estelle before she started crying suddenly, covering her face as grateful sobs shook her body and Eugene stopped his game short, drawing her down again with a gentle hand and pressing their little girl in between them. Estelle wasn't protesting and didn't seem at all confused as her little arms encircled the necks of her parents.
"Hold me. Just hold me, Eugene Fitzherbert." Rapunzel begged. So Eugene held her tight in his weakened arms with his beard catching in her hair as he nestled his face into it. It had been so long, just so long. She was his again, she was safe in his arms. He couldn't ever let her go.
"..my new dream." He heard his darling wife whisper into his chest. Poor little Mite slipped out and looked on in confusion, waiting for the grown-ups to stop being so silly.
"And you are mine." He whispered the familiar exchange. "Forever."
First: whytegriffin.deviantart.com/ar...
Previous:whytegriffin.deviantart.com/ar...
Alright, that's done. Phew. MUCH better now. If you read it, please reread because it is no longer deplorably awful. Thank you.
SPOILER ALERT
---------------------
Did you REALLY think I would kill Eugene? Come on, peoples! Actually that would pretty much kill me.
Previous:whytegriffin.deviantart.com/ar...
Alright, that's done. Phew. MUCH better now. If you read it, please reread because it is no longer deplorably awful. Thank you.
SPOILER ALERT
---------------------
Did you REALLY think I would kill Eugene? Come on, peoples! Actually that would pretty much kill me.
© 2013 - 2024 Whytegriffin
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I probably would have, so I wasn't sure.