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Eugene couldn’t help but pay attention to what everyone said during Rapunzel’s first pregnancy. He didn’t dare admit it, but it truly devastated him to know that as Prince Consort, he was expected to be very hands-off when it came to child-rearing, even though it was his own child they were discussing. He could not bear the thought of basically being only a stern disciplinary presence for his son until the child was 10 or 11 years old….and only then was he expected to step in. “I feel as if I’d be missing half his life. I don’t wanna be an absent parent,” he had finally confessed to Rapunzel.
Things reached a fever pitch as during this same time, Rapunzel kept acquiring more and more things….the palace was just too huge, and she would flit from room to room and space to space, obsessing over how it needed to be just perfect before the baby came. Nobody seemed to know what to do in order to get her to stop nesting. And she was driving everyone bonkers, especially Old Lady Crowley. The palace no longer felt like….home. Not to Rapunzel or Eugene.
Eugene just decided that he was going to whisk himself and Rapunzel away from that enormous palace, away from everybody and everything else, just so they could bloody think for themselves. Rapunzel had fallen pregnant so quickly after she wed Eugene that she’d not been given a chance to be crowned queen. During the foreseeable future, Frederic was serving as interim monarch. And this time, Eugene had gone straight to his father-in-law with his conundrum and asked outright about what otherwise uninhabited properties did the crown possess? He insisted that he be given full run to choose amongst any of them. Surprisingly, Frederic understood. Eugene had certainly not forgotten that Rapunzel’s own mother would’ve died giving birth to her were it not for the Sun Drop. They did not have such a luxury at hand this time. Thus Eugene was adamant that his sweet wife should be as stress-free as possible. Immediately they had a staff and crew revamp one of the kingdom’s old mountain cottages until it was sparkling clean and new again.
While Eugene hadn’t known all of what Rapunzel required while at the cottage, Arianna told him to just finish packing and go already...that Rapunzel would take care of the rest once she got there.
“Home Sweet Home” read the cheerful bright needlepoint as they entered the sunny cottage. It was chockful of natural light. Yellow and white checkered curtains adorned the windows….pieces of sunny decor complemented the curtains. And the nursery was bare so far (so that Rapunzel could pick and choose as she saw fit) except for one thing…..a cradle that Xavier had helped Eugene fashion out of nearby Corona pine that came from the same forest in which the cottage now sat. Eugene knew some basic carpentry skills, same as most guys. But Xavier had really shown him how best to blend together the joins, how to lock all the pieces so tightly they’d never fall apart. It was truly an heirloom piece. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d given somebody something he’d made with his own two hands. Rapunzel burst into tears and threw her arms around him in gratitude and relief; she had been so worried over his being absent for more time than usual, what with pulling everything together as quickly as possible in preparation of their surprise move to the cottage. “Oh Eugene, can’t you feel it??” Rapunzel exclaimed, clapping her hands. “We’re finally home!!”
Eugene, of course, had to go back to work as captain and he’d actually started waking three hours earlier each day so he could arrive on time for his work day, yet still be able to, in turn, leave Corona island three hours sooner and still arrive back at the cottage with some daylight left. And with the in-house midwife and nanny, and occasionally her mother, Rapunzel wouldn’t ever have to be alone either.
His plan included having Rapunzel tell him what she needed and he could always fetch it for her while he was back in Corona and she would have whatever she wanted within a day.
This almighty plan of his worked really well -- for about two weeks. Until he started falling asleep on the job. He was mortified with himself. One month to go and he was a nervous wreck. And the most embarrassing reason is because still -- that feeling of “home” eluded him. It had always been with Rapunzel before. Now, Rapunzel had taken to nesting like a mama bird once she and Eugene had a space that was just theirs.
One particularly exhausting day, Frederic and Arianna had pulled Eugene into the throne room in a semi-formal meeting. “Eugene, son, we hate to do this, and we mean this in the absolute kindest way possible -- but -- you’re fired.” His mouth fell open in shock and dismay before his knackered brain could register that they were in fact giving him an indefinite reprieve from his guard duties until such time as he no longer needed to be with Rapunzel.
Of course, once Eugene was permanently there….he was out of his mind without something else to do, all the time. So he made a promising secondary career out of chopping firewood. Which suited him just fine; it had been several years since anyone had been in the cottage and the supply was woefully inadequate for a stay during the upcoming fall and winter.
And the day Rapunzel went into labor, oh merciful heavens. He thought watching Rapunzel fight Cassandra all those years ago had been terrifying and nightmare-ish….but this??? Even outside the cottage, when all he was doing is listening….Lance, Kiera, and Catalina were there to try and keep him company….but he was so consumed within his own world.
If anything happened to his beloved Rapunzel, it was arguably all his fault. Aaaaand at the moment, she was letting the Father of Fitzherbert know all about it, too. In between contractions and all of the screaming and coaching and pushing, she took the time to curse Eugene, his father, his father’s father, and every other father in existence before that!!! It shocked him, but not because he felt particularly slighted, it was because he hadn’t thought Rapunzel would even know such a curse.
Eugene lamented that Lance was lucky he didn’t have to experience this process in order to have a family. Catalina patted his arm and he thought he saw a glimmer of something familiar in her eyes….until he got distracted and whirled away, slapped his hands over his ears, pulled them down, squeezed his eyes shut, and hummed loudly while rocking back and forth like a headcase. Eugene was simply trying to block everything out for half a second, so he could try and clear his head. Before he knew it though, Kiera had tugged on his hair and said, “Hey, paging the new lumberjack daddy, Mr. Fitzherbert,” she teased, as only Kiera could. It helped. He didn’t know why, but having the girls here….helped.
Everything after that was such a whirlwind….Rapunzel presenting to him their first child, an adorable little pink squish with a full head of dark curls they named “Samson Alexander Fitzherbert”. L’il Squish was carefully passed to the requisite personnel to mind his medical needs...and then Eugene just about fell apart again, this time admiring his wife. There was nothing-- nothing -- she couldn’t do. Nine months incubating L’il Squish into existence...and after 16 hours of hard labor, his badass wife was now actually nursing their tiny child. It was nearly incomprehensible, and yet….somehow, this enigma of life-giving that happens elsewhere in the world, every day, happened right here...20 feet from where he now sat in this rocking chair. The nurse had given Rapunzel a reprieve (it was the first time she’d gotten a real chance to sleep in the past 24 hours.) And Eugene sat vigil in the rocker and couldn’t sleep until he knew Rapunzel got some sleep first….he was so in sync with her emotionally. The past few hours, he didn’t get much, if any, time to truly hold or consider their son due to all of the hungry arms eager to take turns holding him. He tried not to notice but it was like his arms had developed a physical ache that could only be cured by holding their son. And then….finally….at 3 o’clock in the morning on an otherwise idle Tuesday, Eugene actually saw it.
A few minutes after taking the baby from Rapunzel, the nurse suddenly motioned wordlessly to Eugene as he sat in the rocker. He rubbed the sleep from his dozing eyes in the low light of the oil lamp and accepted the little bundle from the nurse. To Eugene, who had been chopping wood every day, all day for the past month….Sammy was positively weightless. Eugene could cup his tiny body as well as support his head all in one hand. And again he marveled how someone so miniscule and fragile could in fact be a wholly realized person. The nurse showed him how to burp the baby. Eugene was worried he might….pat him too hard, but he was tougher than he seemed. And he even tried to push himself away from Eugene’s shoulder. Or, at least, that’s how Eugene interpreted it -- this squish kept fussing and insisting on being moved so Eugene obliged and held his son in front of himself and at this time...L’il Sammy’s eyes were finally open. He was calm and curious and staring directly at Eugene. "Hey there," Eugene whispered in awe, "it's a doozy of a name you've been given, but I begged your mama that if you were a boy, you could be named after cool-sounding ancient Greek heroes." He paused, considering, "And if at just a few hours old, you're gonna one-arm yourself off my shoulder, I daresay you'll grow into that name in no time." The child appeared to be concentrating on just Eugene so hard, his little dark eyes sometimes crossed. Yet this effort wasn’t lost on Eugene. "But please just stay a lil squish for the time being," he finished softly, bringing Sammy close and kissing him on this tiny forehead. Suddenly, this young new papa was awash in that which he’d been searching for so diligently for months now….that feeling of warmth, contentment, peace, and bliss. Immediately the tears brimming on the surface fell down Eugene's cheeks at the realization.
He was finally home.