Author's Note: This is a birthday gift for Leigh Ann (leighann415). It's also sort of a different story for me, b/c I don't normally focus so much on Roz/Alice. But I think this turned out OK. Thanks to Anika (BaronessBlixen) for suggesting this! :)
Alice knew she was supposed to be sleeping, but her mommy's voice woke her up. She was talking to a man. Her mom was always talking to men. But that wasn't what upset her. The conversation had been the same as always. Alice's mom thanked the man for taking her out. Then the man asked if he could stay. Alice heard her mom say no. "My daughter's asleep." Then the man had asked how she ended up with a kid if she had never been married. "It just sort of happened," Alice's mommy had said. "We were in a hurry, and we didn't want to bother with condoms...next thing I knew, I had a kid." Alice always thought her mommy loved her, but now she wasn't so sure. Did her mom have her by accident? She lay awake wondering until she eventually fell asleep.
"Come on, Alice! I don't want to be late," Roz said the next morning. "If you don't eat in the next five minutes, you'll have to go over to Daphne's without breakfast."
Alice took a tiny spoonful of cereal. But she wasn't very hungry. Mostly she was just tired. And sad.
Roz looked at her watch one more time. If they didn't leave now, she would never be able to drop Alice off at Niles and Daphne's and make it to the station on time. Considering she was now the station manager, being late for a meeting was not an option. "That's it, Alice. We've got to get going. Go get your coat on."
Alice kind of enjoyed the fact that her mom was upset. It served her right. But then she did as her mom asked. There was a limit to how far her mom could be pushed, and Alice knew she was right there.
With a deep breath, Roz prepared to leave. She knew something was upsetting her daughter, but she had neither the time nor the energy to find out what it was right now. She had too much to think about with this meeting. Whatever the problem was, it would just have to wait.
On the ride over to Niles and Daphne's, Alice stared at the back of her mom's head. How could her own mom have lied to her all this time? Every night when she went to bed, her mom would tuck her in and kiss her goodnight. But it was all just pretend. Maybe her mom felt sorry for her. After all, it wasn't Alice's fault she was a mistake. When they arrived at The Montana, Alice got out of the car. They rode up in the elevator together, just like always. But Alice knew it wasn't like always. Because now she knew the truth.
"Hello, Alice!" Daphne said when she answered the door.
Alice smiled, but only for a second. Then Alice's mom pushed her into the apartment.
"I'm sorry to just run out like this, but I'm already behind schedule. Thanks for doing this on such short notice, Daphne!"
"It's no trouble, Roz. I just love looking after Alice, and I know David enjoys seeing her as well. We're going to have a ball, right, Alice?"
Alice nodded nervously.
Roz bent down to kiss her daughter's cheek quickly. "Have fun with Daphne, OK? I'll come back as soon as my meeting is over. Love you!" She squeezed Alice tightly for a second, then turned and rushed off.
"Well, what should we do?" Daphne asked. "David is taking a nap at the moment, but maybe when he wakes up, you can hold him."
Alice said nothing. Usually, she wanted to hold David more than anything, but not right now.
"Is everything all right?" Daphne asked. She wasn't sure if it was her powers talking or what, but she sensed something was troubling Alice.
Although Alice was doing her best not to cry, a sniffle still escaped. Slowly, she nodded.
Daphne knew then that her instincts had been right. She took the little girl by the hand and led her to the fainting couch. "You know you can tell me anything, right? Sometimes it helps just to talk about something that's bothering you. You remember what Uncle Frasier's slogan used to be? 'I'm listening.'"
That at least made Alice smile. Her mom had lots of pictures around the house of Uncle Frasier with those words written on them. "I heard Mommy talking last night. She was saying that she had me by accident. 'Cause she didn't want to use a condo." Whatever a condo was.
"Oh, Alice," Daphne said at once. No wonder she was so upset. "Your mommy always wanted you. It's true that you were a surprise. And when your mum found out she was having a baby, she was frightened. But she was also happy. I still remember when she got the news. It was right here in this apartment. Your Uncle Niles was having a Halloween party. Back then, I didn't know how he felt about me. And there was a mix-up, because he thought I was the one who was having a baby. If only I'd known then..." For a moment, Daphne forgot why she was telling this story. She was transported back to that night, when Niles had proposed to her out of nowhere. At the time, she'd had no idea his words had come straight from his heart.
Gradually, the memory faded, and Daphne realized that Alice was staring at her. "Well, anyway, the main thing is: your mum loves you an awful lot. I was there in the hospital the night you were born. I saw her holding you, and she was just beaming from ear to ear. You were the most beautiful baby I'd ever seen. Well, the most beautiful girl baby." She smiled, thinking of her own son.
Alice had listened to every word Daphne said. Suddenly, she didn't feel sad anymore. Daphne must be telling the truth, because she knew Alice's mommy for a long time. If anybody would know about this, it would be her. Alice liked Aunt Daphne and Uncle Niles. She knew they weren't really her relatives, like her family in Wisconsin, but they were nice to her. Aunt Daphne was almost like another mom. Except sometimes she let Alice stay up later than she was supposed to. Alice liked that.
"Do you feel better now?" Daphne asked. She sensed a change in Alice's mood. Now she seemed more like the sweet, adorable girl she normally was.
"Yeah," Alice said, nodding. She was glad Aunt Daphne didn't yell at her or anything. That was another reason she liked it here. Moms get mad sometimes. Aunts never do.
"Good," Daphne said, giving her a squeeze. "Your mum isn't the only one who loves you, you know. Uncle Martin loves you. So does Uncle Frasier, even though he's far away. And Uncle Niles and I love you a lot!"
Alice thought maybe she was beginning to grow up a little. 'Cause now she understood that her mom wasn't always perfect. But then, nobody was. Even the teacher made a mistake once in a while. Alice thought about all the grownups in her life. She knew not everybody in her class had an Uncle Frasier. Sometimes she thought that made her different, 'cause she didn't have a dad like the other kids. But that didn't really matter. She had the most important thing in the world: love.
The End