- Epilogue

The queen and Gothel are having tea as they are watching Rapunzel and Eugene play in the garden. She is raining acorns down on his head from a branch above him.

"You taught her to read." Said the queen, wondering why.

"Yes, it was something to help keep her occupied and deal with some of her questions. She loves to ask questions," replied Gothel.

"Slave nations consider that a capital offense." The queen remarked.

"I know, but I didn't want a slave. I tried to raise her as my own, so Jonathan wouldn't be disappointed in me." Gothel still got misty-eyed whenever she thought of him.

"You said you wanted to kill me yourself," began Gothel, letting the warm scent of the tea fill her nose, she too was curious about the queen.

"Yes." The queen said slowly, glad she had just put down the teapot. There was no denying what she had said, practically shouting it in front of the court.

"How?" Gothel asked very casually. Then drinking some of the fine tea the queen was serving her.

The queen picks up the teacup and then the saucer, a useful technique so it didn't sound like she was as nervous as she was. Rattling the cup and saucer was too obvious a way to show you were nervous.

"Oh, nothing special, I was just going to drink your blood, all of it, myself." She said offhandedly and took a sip of her tea.

Gothel's eye went big and there was a rattle as she put down her teacup.

Author's Note: The general idea for this story was to find out if it was possible to create a happy ending for all involved as much as possible. As bad as Gothel was in the movie, the more I explored her the less evil she became.

Is she selfish and manipulative? Oh, yes. That makes her bad, but hardly evil. If Gothel was really evil she could have left Rapunzel chained up in the bedroom under the stairs, but she didn't. She let Rapunzel paint on the walls, provided many things for Rapunzel to do, and even taught Rapunzel to read, which is a really big deal.

To keep the movie a manageable size they needed to kill Gothel at the end, but sometimes it feels like it was too much. So this takes the ending in a different direction.