Rapunzel! Rapunzel!

Has it really only been four years? It seems more like a hundred since she last sat in Joel's chair for one of her three daily haircuts. For him, she's only been gone a few hours. She'd been in this same spot at 8:00 this morning and had gone out for what limited activities the strict rules of Fabletown allow her.

And now? And now? Are there words to describe who lost she feels in her old life?

She feels the scissors snip away the thirty-two inches of hair and listens to Joel ask about how she spent her day. She fights back the tears that want to gather in her eyes and hopes she makes the appropriate non-committal noises in reply. Something in her voice must give her away, because her friend has real concern in his voice when he pauses in putting his scissors away and asks her what's wrong.

"It's nothing," she answers, wiping away a stray tear. It's everything! "It's just a woman thing. A cup of tea and a nap will sort me out. See you at midnight."

He looks uncomfortable at the mention of women things and doesn't press her further.

As she leaves, she cannot help but turn and open the door to Joel's place hopefully, but the bar is not where she left it, apparently. She hides her disappointment for long enough to murmur an excuse at Joel's questioning look, then makes her escape.

She holds back her tears for as long as it takes to get back to her apartment, then lets a sob loose at the sight of her familiar little home where nothing smells like Alex, and nothing has his imprint upon it and there are no scraps of paper with cryptic notes left laying around...

"I never should have come back."

Rapunzel had scoured post-Christmas Gotham for Christmas decorations, and had found almost everything on clearance at department stores eager to get rid of what was left of their stock. Surprisingly, she had even found some blue bulbs with Hanukkah designs on them--maybe Alex wasn't the only Gothamite to be half-Jewish? She smiled now, at all of the pretty ornaments laid out and ready to be put on the enormous tree set up in the corner of her room.

It hadn't been easy to find a Christmas tree, but she had finally gotten one of the other bar patrons to procure one for her, and bring it to the bar. Alex still had a scratch on his cheek from the branches he had had to cut away to make the thing fit in the tree stand.

She had forced Santa hats on both Alex and Allie, and had Christmas music playing softly in the back ground.

"Are we ready to decorate the tree?"