"The carriage is here to take you to Dr. Mal's office, Rapunzel. Are you ready?"

"Yes, Mother, I'm on my way down."

Rapunzel met her mother at the bottom of the castle's main staircase. The middle-aged, but still lovely queen, looked nervous.

"What's the matter, Mother?" Rapunzel asked, a look of over-the-top concern taking over her face. Over-the-top reactions were the norm for the princess. "You seem nervous."

"I'm just worried about you, dear," her mother said, taking her hand in her own. "You gave us quite the scare."

Rapunzel reached out for her mother's other hand and held them securely.

"I'm sorry, Mother. I barely understand what is going on, but Eugene says that talking to a mind doctor is the best wat to deal with it and I trust him. I'm feeling better now than I have been for the past few days. I don't want what happened to me last night to happen to me again. I don't want to scare the people I love."

"Well, Dr. Mal should be able to help you. She helped your father and I cope when you were taken from us."

"If she could help you, I'm sure she could help me," Rapunzel said, her usual cheerfulness returning.

The two women walked to the front courtyard where the very plain carriage was waiting. Two brown quarter horses were harnessed to the front. The driver was a regular guard at the castle, but he was wearing what appeared to be his civilian clothes instead of his palace uniform. It was the queen's wish that Rapunzel go to the doctor's office secretly. Dr. Mal had insisted on conducting at least the initial session in her office, away from the clamor of the castle.

Rapunzel hugged her mother before climbing into the coach.

"Good luck, dear," the queen said. "I'll see you in two hours. Let me know how it goes."

Rapunzel promised she would as she shut the door. She settled back into the seat cushions as the vehicle started to move. She tried to keep her mind blank as she made her short journey to Dr. Mal's office. She had been nervous about the appointment. She wanted to make a good impression. Her mother had spoken so highly of the doctor. Rapunzel wanted everything to go as well for her as it did for her parents.

What she failed to realize was that nothing really got better for her parents until she had been returned to them. Dr. Mal had just given them tools to cope with their grief and worry at the loss of their daughter. She hadn't been able to solve their problem. Rapunzel didn't know that her parents still dealt with feelings of loss and regret over all the years they missed with their daughter from time to time.

The coach driver opened the door for the princess when they arrived. It had been arranged that Rapunzel would be dropped off and picked up at the office's back door. A woman was standing in the open doorway, her hands clasped in front of her body. She was middle-aged, a little older than the king and queen. She had grey hair creeping into her dark brown hair at the temples and lines around her eyes and mouth. She wasn't beautiful exactly, but she was still easy on the eyes and her mouth had what could be called a perpetually amused quirk to it.

It makes her look almost...sinister, Rapunzel thought, feeling slightly uneasy.

"Please come in, the woman said, gesturing through the doorway, back into the building.

Rapunzel entered the building and the woman closed the door behind them.

"Just through that last door on your right."

Rapunzel turned into the lavishly decorated office. Along two walls were built in bookshelves. There as a beautifully carved mahogany desk with a matching mahogany desk chair. In front of the desk were two small leather and mahogany chairs and across the room from the desk was a fainting couch and a large armchair.

"Please take a seat," the woman said, waving a finger at the two chairs facing the desk. She sat down in the desk chair. "As you might have already guessed, I am Dr. Veda Mal."

Rapunzel sat down in one of the offered chairs. It was surprisingly comfortable.

"Your mother contacted me. She said you've been having problems."

"Yeh-yes, I have been."

Rapunzel suddenly felt very self-conscious. Her face must have echoed that feeling because Dr. Mal smiled reassuringly at her.

"I'm sorry, maybe if we got to know each other a little, you'd be more comfortable."

The princess smiled and nodded.

"I'll start, if you don't mind," Dr. Mal said. "I've been practicing mind medicine for nearly twenty-five years. Mostly here in Corona, but I moved to Arendelle for about five years. Just moved back here about six months ago."

"I've read about Arendelle. Did you not like the winters up there?"

"Well, they weren't pleasant, I'll give you that much, but that wasn't the main reason. I was just homesick."

"Was there a reason you went to Arendelle?"

Dr. Mal's face grew tense for a brief second. If Rapunzel had blinked, she would have missed it, but she was fascinated by this woman so she had been studying her face closely. Rapunzel had come to realize that there was something eerily familiar about her.

"I just wanted to make a change, but enough about me, how about you? Tell me a little about yourself."

"Well, I am the princess of Corona, as you know. I just returned to Corona a few months ago. You probably heard, but I was trapped in a tower by a witch for nearly eighteen years."

"Yes, I know that well. I had just returned to Corona myself when you showed back up," Dr. Mal said. "I can't imagine what it was like being confined in a small tower for so long."

"Yes, it was horrible really. I didn't know how horrible it was until I experienced life outside."

The doctor nodded knowingly.

"This brings me to a question, if you don't mind, you had magical, healing blonde hair as an infant. I saw in a painting done of you for the local newspaper that when you returned you had short brown hair. I see now that your hair is blonde again and even though you have it wrapped and braided up, it is very long. Care to talk about that?"

"Yes, that is part of why I'm here, how my hair got cut off…it grew back recently. I went to the place where the magical flower was, the one that was used to heal my mother and gave me the magical hair. I touched the spot it was at and my blonde hair returned, but the healing powers didn't."

"They didn't?"

"No, I've tested it. I just have the hair now."

Dr. Mal nodded and wrote something down in a notebook that had been on her desk.

"And that was the reason you were kidnapped by the witch, what was her name?"

"Gothel, Mother Gothel and yes, that was why she took me. She used my healing ability to keep her young like she had used the flower before it was given to my real mother."

"So, she viewed you as a possession?"

"Yes, I see that now. She wasn't always mean to me…completely. She would say something nice to me and then follow it up with a mean…sarcastic remark. Or she would say something mean and then say she was joking, that I know she loves me."

Rapunzel shrunk back into the chair.

"I was so brainwashed. I didn't know any different."

"I understand, Rapunzel. We all find comfort where we can. Mother Gothel was all you had. Was she always at the tower with you?"

"No, I was alone a lot."

"What did you do while you were alone?" Dr. Mal asked.

"I'd sing, dance, paint, sew, cook, read, but I didn't have many books to read, so it would be the five over and over again. I daydreamed a lot. A lot, a lot. I have a pet chameleon named Pascal, so I would talk to him too and we'd play."

"Are you a good painter and cook?"

"Yes, very. I had lots of time to practice by myself in the tower…" Rapunzel's voice trailed off and she thought of all the time she had spent fending off her loneliness.

"How did you learn to cook, sew, paint etcetera?"

"Mother Gothel taught me to cook and sew. I taught myself to paint. She taught me lots of things actually. How to read and write, math. She taught me a lot of things that were wrong too. That men have razor sharp canines…"

"She kept you in fear of the outside world?"

"Yes, she didn't want anyone to find me, so she had to keep me in the tower."

"Did she lock the door to the tower? How did she keep you in the tower?"

"I didn't know until the last day I was there, but there was a giant slab of stone over a door in the tower room floor," Rpaunzel explained. "My hair was so long and strong that I would throw it out the window and Gothel would climb up and down it to get in and out of the tower."

"How did you eventually escape? I heard that an outlaw by the name of Flynn Rider found while fleeing the palace guards and you two eventually figured out that you were the missing princess."

"That's the short version, but you are correct."

"I can fully imagine why you would want to get out of that tower," Dr. Mal said, smiling a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I life like that is no life at all."

Rapunzel nodded. In her head she puzzled about this doctor. She seemed outwardly sincere and kind, but the princess felt something slightly off about her. There was an air about this woman that was not right.

No, Rapunzel, she thought. You are just overreacting because you are nervous. If Mother trusts this woman, you should too.

"Now Rapunzel," Dr. Mal said in a serious tone. "We need to discuss a little bit about why you are here. I know it is going to be difficult. But, it does need to be done."

Rapunzel nodded, clasping her hands in her lap nervously.

"If you need to take brakes, just let me know OK?"

"We'll start with the most recent and work our way back. Tell me about last night, princess."

Rapunzel took a deep before starting her tale.

"It was really bad last night, but I had been struggling for the past two days. I kept feeling like I was trapped, that I was back in the tower. I would keep slipping back and forth from the tower to my room in my mind. I was too scared to leave my room though. I didn't want my friends or mother and father around because I didn't think they'd understand and after what I did to Cass and Eugene, I couldn't face them."

"You were having flashbacks of the tower?"

"Yes, and nightmares about my last night in the tower. Blood was everywhere and Gothel would fall out the window over and over in front of me! Eugene lying dead in my arms…"

Rapunzel fell into a sobbing fit.

"I-I c-can't talk about-about it!" she sobbed. "It brings…brings it all b-back!"

"I understand, Rapunzel, but we need to work thought this," Dr. Mal said, pushing a box of handkerchiefs across her desk to the princess. "So, what I am hearing is you are having flashbacks, nightmares and feelings of fear and guilt."

"Yes."

"How did this episode start?"

"I have two people in my life, Cassandra, who's my friend and lady-in-waiting, and Eugene, who is my true love. I will marry him someday. He's also the Flynn Rider, former outlaw. Anyway, they are always fighting and I tricked them into being locked into a cell together and having to work together to get out. One thing led to another and the twin Stabbington Brothers escaped due to my actions and took Cass and Eugene hostage. Cass and Eugene were able to defeat the brothers, but they were both slightly injured. It was my fault they were put in that position in the dungeons and my fault they were hurt."

"No one was bleeding though?"

"Not that I know of."

"So how does that connect to your last night in the tower? Did what happen in the dungeon resemble what happen in the tower?"

"How it made me feel did and Eugene getting hurt did. How the Stabbington brothers were holding my friends did."

"I see," Dr. Mal said. "What it sounds like you are experiencing is called nostalgia by many in my profession. It affects around a quarter of people who experience something traumatic in their lives, such as violence or a bad accident of some kind or a natural disaster."

"That's what Eugene said. He said war veterans, victims of violent crimes or accidents, people like that can get post-trauma-whatsit, what you said. I didn't call it that though. I don't think he remembered the name."

"He must have some experience with it then."

"Is there a cure?"

"Somewhat," Dr. Mal said. "It can be managed, most definitely. It is something that will always be there, even if you go years and years between episodes. You have to keep up on management techniques though."

"What are the techniques?"

"There's a few different ways to manage PTSD and I generally prescribe a combination of techniques. There's cognitive therapy and exposure therapy and there are several herbal medications that I prescribe that can help. Duration of treatment with my office and the ratio of cognitive and exposure therapies will vary from person to person. The type of medication that will be affective and the duration of use will vary as well."

"Will I have to take medication for the rest of my life?"

"It depends. We will just have to take it a day at a time," Dr. Mal switched topics back to what was causing Rapunzel's issues, now that she was calm again. "Now, the episode in the dungeon and the two days afterwards were caused by something that happened in the tower. I know it will be hard to talk about, but could you talk about that last night?"

Rapunzel looked down at her hands which she had folded in her lap. She notice that they were shaking and clenched so tightly her knuckles had turned white. She took a deep breath and concentrated on relaxing her hands and her whole body.

"That's good, Rapunzel," Dr. Mal said softly. "Continue using any relaxation techniques you know. They will help."

The princess took a few more breaths before speaking.

"I escaped the tower with Eugene's help. What went on while I was out in the world isn't really important to what happened that last night in the tower other than Eugene and I fell in love with each other in those few days. Anyway, I was tricked into returning to the tower, to Mother Gothel. I got into an argument with her and she tied me up and gagged me. Eugene had followed us to the tower and she threw my hair down for him. I was tied and gagged, I c-couldn't warn him. She was hiding by-by the window when he came through. She sneaked up behind him and stabbed him in the stomach…she was standing right behind him like the Stabbington Brothers were standing behind him and Cass in the dungeon!"

Rapunzel began crying and shaking again.

"It was like I was tied and gagged again! I couldn't help Eugene then and I couldn't help him or Cass that night! I was defenseless again, like in the tower!"

Dr. Mal wrote more in her notebook.

"What happened next, in the tower?"

"I convinced Gothel to let me heal Eugene. I said if she let him die, I would fight and never stop fighting and trying to escape. If she let me heal him, I would go with her and never leave her or try to escape. So she let me heal him. Before I could though, Eugene use part of a broken mirror to cut all my hair off. When it is cut, it loses its power and turns brown. Gothel went crazy and started aging rapidly. Pascal, my chameleon used my hair to trip her and she fell out the window. Later, we looked for her, but her body had disintegrated into dust when she hit the ground."

"If you lost your hair, how did you save Eugene?"

"He was dying in my arms. I started crying. The last bit of magic came out in my tears and healed him. We were sitting in a pool of his blood, so we hurried out of the tower, through the door in the floor. I've never been back there."

"What you went through was definitely traumatic, Rapunzel, but I am optimistic about your prognosis."

"Can I ask about the therapies?"

"Of course you can. What do you want to know?"

"What are cognitive and exposure?"

"Well, the very simple definitions are these, cognitive therapy helps you understand and change how you think about your trauma and how it affected you afterwards. Exposure therapy will help you have less fear about your memories and gain control over your memories via repeated exposure to those memories."

"So, you are going to make me talk about the tower a lot, huh?"

"I am. It's going to difficult to begin with, like it was tonight, but eventually you will be able to discuss it frankly with me and anyone else you choose to discuss it with."

"What are the herbal medications?"

"There are several I work with. I will start you on the one I have the most success with, but if that doesn't help you, we'll try others. They are to help you feel less sad and less worried."

"Thank you for helping me," Rapunzel said. "What do we do next?"

"I will write up notes about this meeting and then write you a prescription. We'll start the therapy next session. I want to start by meeting once a week, we can do more than that if that doesn't work and after a while, we can taper sessions to fewer and fewer."

"I can meet anytime."

"I'll send you the dates for the next few weeks when I send the herbal medication."

"That will be fine."

Dr. Mal stood up and Rapunzel followed suit. The doctor escorted the princess to the back door where Rapunzel's carriage was waiting. The two women shook hands before Rapunzel stepped onboard. Rapunzel noted with some embarrassment that her palm was sticky with sweat, but if the doctor noticed, she didn't say anything.

"Try to have a good rest of your day," Dr. Mal said.

"I will!" Rapunzel said. "Thank you so much doctor!"

Rapunzel shut the coach door and she headed back to the palace. She frowned to herself.

"I know I should be feeling good about this," she said quietly to herself. "But, I get an odd feeling from that woman."

After the princess had left, Veda Mal returned to her office. She did write up the notes from her session with Rapunzel, but while she did so, she smirked. A sinister glimmer shone in her eyes.

So her hair is back? she thought. She says it no longer has its magical properties, but how do I know she is telling the truth?

She finished compiling her notes of the session and took out another, older notebook from a drawer in her desk, opening it to a page near the middle.

I had my meeting with the princess of Corona, Rapunzel, this afternoon. My heart fell when I saw her out in the street just after her return to her family. Her hair was brown and short. Her hair was blonde when she was kidnapped from the palace all those years ago. But, now her hair is back to blonde. Her magic has to be there, maybe she has yet to find the right words to unlock it?

My return to Corona was fortuitous. Arednelle was nothing but a dead end. I know that the heir to the Arendelle throne has magic abilities of her own, but I was unable to get close to her. Based on what I learned, her powers are useless to me and unconnected to the magic I am seeking.

Princess Rapunzel has what I need, what I seek. My birthright, my legacy.

Time to put my plan into action.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is the modern term, it was called many, many things throughout history. I felt that the modern term wouldn't have been used in Rapunzel's universe, it just didn't fit when I typed it out initially. Nostalgia was a term used for it around the same time period Rapunzel is traditionally set in the 17th century (I know about fan theories regarding when this was set, I don't care). There is a German term for it, Heimweh, that used during the same time period by some German doctors (Rapunzel is a German fairy tale), but I couldn't find as much on it being used as a term for PTSD, so I went with nostalgia.

Also, I found it humorous to use nostalgia in a negative context, with how much people seem to see the past through rose colored glasses nowadays.

I know I'm playing pretty fast and loose with facts about PTSD etc., but Disney plays fast and loose with facts of all kinds, so I'm just following their lead.