UPDATE! So all of you following this story, I thought I added the up date but did not. I had to re-upload this chapter in order for it to work right. It's not a new chapter, just an update. The second part is finally out, actually it's been out for a while. It's called Truth Be Told. There are weekly updates...so yeah. Sorry about that. Anyhow, y'all got some catching up to do. So have fun, I hope you like it.

Thank you to all of you who have commented so far and who have hit the favorite/follow button. It is greatly appreciated. I really hope y'all like the next story. Again, comments and critiques are always welcome and appreciated.

Chapter 15

The room was bustling with too many papers, and too many people. Eugene sat up against his mountain of pillows with his knees up looking over King Daniel's last will, some bills he needed to go over, and various pieces of paper that he had no idea what to do with. James sat by his side trying to organize everything into piles. The flow of paper never seemed to end. Eugene was getting frustrated. The four councilmen where in his room whom all thought that what each of them had to say to Eugene was more important, nurses, guards and cooks constantly walked in and out, and to top it all off, Doctor Menken decided to show up.

"How is my favorite patient?" Eugene rolled his eyes in frustration.

"Ugh…Christ. Doc, seriously this is not the time."

"Eugene I need to check your wound and change your bandages."

"Really?! Right now?! Is it so imperative that you have to do it right this second?!" Doctor Menken raised an eyebrow. Eugene was seconds away from snapping. "Ugh, you know what, everybody out. Everybody just get out!" The room froze in its place, eyes fixed on Eugene. James slowly rose out of his seat to leave but Eugene quickly grabbed his arm. "Not you!" He slowly sat back down.

Doctor Menken looked over to James who looked back and cautiously shook his head at him. James motioned the doctor towards the door. Doctor Menken was the first to move and everyone else followed in his footsteps. James waited until the door was shut to start speaking.

"It's gonna be ok, Kid." Eugene had his head in a pillow

"No, I can't take it anymore, I have to tell someone."

"Rider it's only the first day- wait, tell someone what?" Eugene paused for a minute before speaking.

"About that night." He looked up and James.

"But, you said-."

"I lied." James gave him a stern look. "Don't give me that look if you were in my situation you would do the same thing." James expression changed to concern. "That night, I know who stabbed me." James continued to listen. "It was Daniel." A look of shock and horror came over James's face.

"What?" The question was barely over a whisper.

"I know…it sounds crazy…but it's true. I have had the hardest time trying to tell anyone. But I don't think he wanted to do it, I think his hand was forced to."

"What do you mean?"

"When he…did it…he," Eugene was having a hard time trying to find the words, "he kept telling me he was sorry over and over again." His speech suddenly started to speed up nervously. "The last time someone shoved a knife into me, there was absolutely no remorse. I was walked over like I was already dead, so I know he didn't want to kill me. Not to mention if someone was trying to kill you by knife, they would rip it out of you and leave you there to bleed to death. Daniel left the knife in me-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa slow down, time out. So you are telling me, he attempted to kill you and then someone turns around to kill him immediately" Eugene blinked at him.

"…Essentially…yes."

"That does not make a lick of sense."

"You're preaching to the choir, my friend, I have been struggling with this for a while."

"Why would he want to kill you in the first place." Eugene placed a finger up.

"First of all, I didn't say he wanted to, I said he was forced, secondly, I am assuming it was for what I found out that night." James looked confused for a moment, and then it dawned on him.

"That book, you got into it didn't you." Eugene nodded his head slowly. "Well what did it say, what did you find out?"

"Nothing good." James anxiously shook his hands at Eugene urging him to continue. "I don't think you really want to hear the rest." Now it was James turn to get frustrated. "Well, Daniel is the one who set up Rapunzel's kidnapping." James was shocked.

"Why?"

"To save Elizabeth's life."

"When she got sick while she was pregnant."

"Exactly."

"What else did you find out?"

"Well not much, other than the fact that he was mixed in with a whole world of shit with some people he shouldn't have been with."

"Who?" Eugene put his face back into his pillow and groaned.

"Oh that is whole other…ahh…I don't even know where to begin to explain to you that whole mess." James didn't know what to say. Eugene started whining into his pillow.

"Hey, it's gonna be alright." James patted him on the back. Eugene came back up.

"You know what he said to me?" James shook his head. "He said that he had spent the better part of twenty years beating himself up over the fact that he could not protect his daughter, and now that he has her back he just wanted to enjoy what time he has left with her."

"Hey! This isn't your fault if that is what you are getting at."

"Yeah but if I had just listened-"

"No. Buts. About it. You were only doing what you thought was right. Besides, it sounds to me like there is more to this than just this twenty year old kidnapping, and if so, you are probably doing this kingdom a favor. This is like war, Kid, sometimes you have to sacrifice a lot just to save something that you believe in. The way I see it, you and the King have sacrificed a lot."

"I feel like I just made everything worse."

"I know. It seems like that right now, but in the end, it will work itself out."

Eugene took in a deep breath, and let it out slow. "Look you just have to give me your word you won't say a word of this to anyone…AN-Y-ONE."

"Ok, ok. You have my word."

A knock suddenly came to the door, it was a frantic knock.

"It's open!" Conli came rushing in.

"Your Majesty, we um..have…an issue." Eugene waited to hear. When he didn't continue he impatiently shook his head.

"What?! What was it?"

Conli stammered. "Well, Sire, there is…um…"

"Spit it out already."

"We have a man, a mysterious man out front. He wishes to see you directly." Eugene's brow narrowed. 'Mysterious man?' He thought for a minute, then, as if a light came on in his head he asked,

"What does he look like?"

"Sire?" That's an odd question. He even received an odd look from James.

"What. Does. He. Look. Like?" Conli thought for a minute.

"Well it's hard to tell, he has a hood covering most of his face…but he does have gray facial hair." Eugene smiled.

"Send him up." Conli hesitated. "Go, now." Conli ran out of the room. Eugene turned to look at James who was still looking at him funny. "What?"

Moments later, Conli showed back up with a man, a hooded man. He walked into the room.

"It's ok, Conli you can leave." Conli hesitated once more. "It's ok go." Eugene shooed him with his hand. The hooded man walked closer to Eugene and James. James was getting whip lash looking back and forth between him and this 'mysterious hooded man'. Eugene only continued to stare at the hooded man and smile.

"Well, it's been a long time…Dad."

The End

AN: Well that's the end. Hope you enjoyed it.

I'm kidding that's not the end, what are you nuts? If you haven't figured it out there is going to be a sequel. I know you must have a lot of questions. But fret not; I will tie up everything in the second part. I promise. I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it. This has taken me a very long time to write and a lot of courage to even start it. I am shaking so bad right now due to an entire thermos of coffee, no sleep, and excitement and nervousness all at the same time. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy lives to read this. Reviews are always appreciated. I do not currently have a set time when the next one will be out, but I am working diligently to making sure it is the quality of my best ability, so please forgive me if it takes a while. The next one will be named Truth Be Told. I know how frustrating it is when you get into a good story and it is not finish and you wait patiently, but day after day the update never seems to come. Before you know it a year has gone by and still no update. Then you sadly have to take it out of your follows list along with many others that have taken the same gravely path of unfinished stories. But you have my word, this story will be finished. Hold me to it!

For those of you who are more Rapunzel fans, I am sorry there wasn't much of her, but I will tell you this, I will write more of Rapunzel in the second part, and she is gonna be pretty bad ass too so there is that to look forward to. I am sorry, I am a huge Eugene/Flynn fan. Don't get me wrong I love Rapunzel, but…ya know…he's Flynn, come on, hahaha.

Also if you find grammar mistakes (which, I am sure you will) I apologize. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I reread my story I still never seem to find them all. Still to this day I am finding more and more mistakes in my last two stories, and for that I am sorry. Thank you again for reading this.

UPDATE! I am currently on chapter 9 in the next story. For those of you who want to wait patiently and read part two of this story, I will put an update on this story and let y'all know that it is out. That way you don't have to keep checking my profile page. I don't like to post stories until they are finished. Also I am currently working on another Tangled story, another multi-chapter. It will be called "What once was lost, should stay lost" So keep an eye out for that. For those of you who are following/favorite me and or my stories, and posting reviews, thank you thank you thank you. It means so much to me. I will admit I was really nervous posting this story. But it got a better turn out than I thought, so thank you for that.