Hello again lovelies. Sorry it's taken so long for me to update. Real life has been kicking my ass quite thoroughly lately. And, seeing as how it doesn't show any signs of stopping anytime soon, you should probably be forewarned that updates will likely be few and far between for a bit. I hate it, but it's true. I'll do my best to not take forever though - you have my word.

That said, this chapter's for Thirteen for talking me down from my Indie Award inspired cliff. If you don't know who Thirteen is, get your butt over to the thread and find out (and get it back on topic while you're at it :P). http://www(dot)twilighted(dot)net/forum/viewtopic(dot)php?f=44&t=4205


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Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day.
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you.
Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?

- "Dear Prudence", The Beatles

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BPOV

A metallic crashing noise woke me from a sound sleep and I blinked at the bright morning sunlight leaking through my window. What the hell is that girl up to at this hour?

"Ugh. Rose, go back to bed," I mumbled incoherently to my empty bedroom, my voice thick and scratchy with sleep.

"It's not Rosalie." I jumped at the deep, unexpected, and slightly agitated voice that responded from behind me and was immediately met by a familiar velveteen laugh. Right… not alone this time. Edward wrapped a strong arm around my waist and pulled me close to him, leaning the side of his head against mine. "Forget I was here, love?" he whispered into my ear, his breath tickling my neck and making my heart race.

"…No?" He laughed again and I felt his lips lightly caress the spot just behind my ear. How did I forget this? He brushed my hair from my shoulder and trailed soft kisses down the side of my neck. I could get used to waking up like this.

I shifted myself on the bed and turned to face him. The look in his eyes when they met mine was so intense and full of emotion that it nearly overpowered me. I was filled with a sudden and overwhelming sense of urgency and acted entirely on instinct, wrapping my hands around the back of his neck in the same instant that he crushed his lips to mine. His hands found my sides and pulled me closer to him as his fingers gently brushed across the thin fabric of the oversized t-shirt I'd worn to bed the night before. He dragged the tip of his tongue slowly across my bottom lip as one hand worked its way from my waist over my hip and to the outside of my thigh. An inevitable contented sigh escaped my lips the moment I felt his touch on my bare skin.

My fingers wove themselves into his hair and I pulled him into what may well have been the deepest kiss humanly possible. Our tongues battled futilely for dominance as his hand inched its way back up my thigh underneath the t-shirt. His fingertips danced over the delicate lace of my panties and suddenly breathing normally seemed a total impossibility. I threw my head back against my pillow and gasped for air as Edward's soft lips trailed wet kisses down my neck.

His fingers practically clawed their way back down my hip to my thigh before his hands roughly bunched up the edge of my shirt and pulled it over my head. As soon as the fabric hit the floor his hands and mouth were back on me. I tugged roughly at his hair and scratched my nails down his back as he kissed his way from my lips, down my neck, between my breasts to my belly button. His fingers grazed the top of my panties and he looked up at me, his darkened, lust-filled eyes silently pleading for permission. I nodded fervently and watched as a mischievous smile spread across his face and his fingertips hooked into the lacey edge and tugged downward. I lifted my hips off the mattress and he pulled the fabric down an inch or so before a loud, untimely, and unfortunately familiar banging noise echoed through the room.

"Breakfast is ready!" Alice's surprisingly cheerful voice chirped from the other side of the door as the doorknob began to turn. Edward and I exchanged a panicked look as he dove back to my side and threw a blanket over the two of us just before the door burst open to reveal his entirely too chipper cousin carrying a full tray of food. "I hope you don't have anything against the French, Bella, 'cause I made crê—," she stopped short, her mouth dropping open as her eyes widened and darted around the room, no doubt taking in the various articles of discarded clothing on the floor. They sparkled mischievously when they settled back on my pathetically panting, blanket-covered form and she smiled the world's sweetest shit-eating grin. "Like I said, I made crêpes," she giggled, placing the tray on the floor next to my abandoned nightshirt and dancing back toward the door. "And it's about damn time."

EPOV

I had to give Bella credit – her plan, dangerous though it was, worked like a charm. Alice spilled her heart out to Rosalie at dinner Friday night and woke up her standard, obnoxiously perky self on Saturday. The most I had really allowed myself to hope for was just that she would eat something other than my crappy toast, but, as usual, she took my expectations and threw them out the window, surpassing them by miles. Not only did she eat the delectable dinner Bella served, but she even made breakfast in the morning. And while her timing on breakfast was absolute shit, I couldn't have been happier to see her be Alice again.

I knew Bella thought her dinner party made everything better and I wanted to believe the same, but the cynic in me just couldn't. I spent the entire week watching Alice carefully, waiting for her to slip back into her funk and worrying about just what I would do if she lost it again. As it turned out, all my concern was for nothing – my peppy little cousin actually was back to her normal animated self. She actually seemed even bouncier than usual, if that was possible. It was like she'd found an entire new purpose for living and had renewed energy for each and every thing she'd ever cared about.

When Wednesday rolled around I tried to no avail to convince her that open mic night at Bella's coffee shop wasn't a necessity. While I was glad to see her out and interacting with people again, her incessant flittering about just screamed "avoidance" to me and I worried she was busying herself just to keep her mind off the sadder parts of her life. I knew it was a dangerous step, but I had to make sure she was really dealing with her depression and not just shelving it. More than anything, I needed her to know how watching her suffer tore me apart, so I told her the only way I knew she'd listen – I let her drag me to the coffee shop and chose a song just for her.

From the second we got to the coffee shop to the moment I took my Hummingbird and got in front of the crowd, Alice was running around like a mad woman, talking to anyone who would listen and trying every single confection the shop had to sell. I stepped up to the mic and made myself perfectly clear.

"Sit down, Alice," I started seriously. Every patron in the shop roared with laughter as Alice did what I told her, but a quick look at Bella standing at the counter told me she was just as concerned over her extreme and sudden perkiness as I was. "I know you've all gotten used to me singing for Bella…" She flushed bright red as all the attention in the room suddenly focused on her and catcalls from her regular customers echoed throughout the shop. "But, just this once, I need to do something different. Just this once, I need to sing to my cousin." The cookie Alice had been biting into fell to the floor and she stared at me like I was out of my mind. "I know things have been rough for you lately, Al, and I need you to know how I feel about that."

I threw my guitar strap around my neck and started playing, watching Alice carefully for any sign of recognition… any emotion at all, really. I knew she knew the song – she was why I knew the song; I just needed her to realize why I was playing it. I stared directly into the curious eyes of my cousin as I sang.

"Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day.
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?"

Alice's eyes started to tear up but she never took them off of mine as she mouthed "I'm sorry" to me. "I know," I mouthed back between verses.

"Dear Prudence, open up your eyes.
Dear Prudence, see the sunny skies.
The wind is low, the birds all sing
That you are part of everything.
Dear Prudence, won't you open up your eyes?
Look around, 'round, 'round, 'round, 'round
Look around, 'round, 'round, 'round, 'round
Look around"

Alice wiped the tears from her eyes as Bella sat down next to her, wiping tears from her own. She smiled affectionately at me before wrapping her arms around Alice in a comforting gesture. They swayed gently with the song, both their eyes focused entirely on me.

"Dear Prudence, let me see you smile.
Dear Prudence, like a little child.
The clouds will be a daisy chain,
So let me see you smile again.
Dear Prudence, won't you let me see you smile?"

I winked at Alice and she smiled widely at me, laughing openly and honestly for the first time in days. Seeing her honestly happy elated me to no end and I couldn't stop myself. "That's my girl!" I said before starting the last verse. I watched Bella grab Alice by the shoulders and shake her slightly and playfully before pecking her on the cheek and doing the most unexpected thing. She ran up next to me, laughing at my shocked face, and sang the end of the song with me, harmonizing surprisingly well for someone who allegedly only sang in the shower.

"Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day.
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you.
Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?"

When the song ended, the crowd clapped and cheered, but I didn't really notice and I was pretty sure Bella didn't either. We were too busy watching Alice run over to us with tears streaming down her cheeks and her trademarked beautiful smile plastered on her face. She threw her arms around us both and cried repeated refrains of "Thank you" and "I love you guys" between our heads as we just hugged her back tightly. It was in that very moment that I realized she really was getting better and she finally understood how much she meant to everyone else and how her suffering affected us all.

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"That's right. There most definitely is a meeting this week…"

Alice had been on the phone just about all day calling each and every member of her ridiculous protest group. She said she felt horrible about having canceled the last two meetings and that nothing productive could possibly have come from her moping and not fighting for "the cause". Now that she was back to her normal self, it was business as usual as far as that "cause" was concerned. Well, actually, it was business as usual with a lot more energy and determination. She'd decided only that morning that the only real way to make change was to actually go to Washington and join with other protest groups. Strength in numbers and all that crap. She'd talked about it before, but now she was absolutely determined to do it. But first – recruiting more Chicago hippies with a local gathering. I was torn between being happy she was herself again and wanting to ram my head repeatedly into the wall.

"Bring as many people as you can! There's strength in numbers, they'll see." Told you so.

By the end of the night, all her phone calls had been made and our apartment was sporting brand new wallpaper. Brand new wallpaper that brightly and repeatedly proclaimed "Draft beer, not boys", "Make love, not war", "Eighteen today, dead tomorrow", and my personal favorite, "Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity". She was particularly proud of the last one and was thoroughly elated when I asked to hold that one if I had to hold a sign at all. Her enthusiasm was almost contagious; I found myself actually looking forward to a meeting for once, and not just because it meant seeing Bella again.

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"Hurry up, Edward! We have to get everything set up before people start arriving! What'll they think if I'm unorganized, huh? They'll think I can't possibly put together this protest and then they'll think I can't organize the trip to Washington and then they'll think there's no point in being here if the girl running things can't even set up in time for her own meeting, that's what they'll think! And they'll leave, Edward, they'll leave! And then where will we be?" Alice was panicking about her grand return to the protest circuit. Instead of just bringing out the few bean bag chairs she kept stashed in a closet at the meeting place, this time we'd had to bring extra chairs and the signs and her damn record player because "music inspires people, Edward!".

"Free to go home," I mumbled to myself as I pulled yet another oversized bean bag from the trunk of the cab.

"No, Edward! It'll leave us completely hosed, that's where it'll leave us. Up a damn creek…" She kept talking, but I tuned her out. It was at least the fourth time I'd heard her little diatribe that night alone. She was driving me absolutely mental.

When we finished setting everything up to her exact specifications and preferences, Alice finally relaxed into one of the hippie chairs and set her record player to play "Revolution" on repeat throughout the entire night. She's damn lucky that song's actually kind of badass… otherwise I'd smash the damn thing.

People started showing up about ten minutes after we finished setting up and Alice rushed to greet each and every one of them personally. She seemed genuinely excited to see each person, like they were a long lost best friend or something. I couldn't even keep all their names straight. I was surprised she could, given the amount of obviously new faces swarming the room. When hippies call in reinforcements they really go all out… I looked around anxiously for Bella and noticed Alice doing the same thing. After maybe fifteen minutes of meet-and-greets and fruitless searching, she gave up and started the meeting.

"First of all, I just want to apologize for my absence the past few weeks," she started. I was amazed at how captivated her audience seemed to be; it was like they'd all caught her enthusiasm bug. I wondered briefly if there might be a vaccination for such a thing before she continued her speech. "We lost a lot of valuable time because of my idiocy, but we're going to make it all up! I promise. I've got big plans for us!" She proudly held up two of her signs and showed them off to the group. "We're gonna protest in the city next weekend! There's over three million people in this city and we're gonna inform every last one and sway 'em to our side!" she shouted emphatically. Applause and enthusiatic cheers echoed off the walls as the group showed its support for her plan. "And then we're gonna go to Washington and we're gonna team up with other groups and show 'em we don't believe in their fucking war, now do we?!" The shouting and booing was deafening. I had to admit I was impressed with the power extra-peppy-Alice seemed to have over people. She really was a born leader.

"Preach it, sister!" someone shouted from the back just as someone closer to the front started a chant of "One, two, three, four! We don't want your fucking war!" The rest of the group quickly joined in and Alice had to step up on one of the boxes we'd carried in and shout at the top of her little lungs to regain their focus.

"Hey! HEY! You wanna know what this damn war is doing to our boys?! What it's really like over there?!" she bellowed, effectively silencing the enraged group. She pulled a piece of paper from her back pocket and unfolded it carefully, almost reverently. "'We were running through the jungle. I didn't know a dozen men weighed down with arms and equipment could be so quiet. All I could hear was sticks and twigs being crushed under our feet. We came up to a clearing. The sun was bright, almost blinding. Birds were flying overhead. It was almost peaceful, almost felt like home. Then I heard it,'" she read, her voice getting quieter and shakier with each sentence. I walked over to her and put a comforting arm around her.

"You don't have to do this, Alice," I whispered into her ear. She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes.

"Yes I do, Edward." She took a deep breath and continued reading the letter that had broken her into a mere shell of herself only weeks ago. "'A high-pitched squealing, getting louder and louder. The men were shouting incoherently behind me. I turned to see what the fuss was about…'" she trailed off and I noticed there were fresh tears streaking the paper that was shaking between her fingers.

"'They were scattering everywhere, taking cover,'" I continued for her. "'The squealing grew louder still and'—" Alice gasped beside me and I looked up from the letter to see her staring fixedly toward the door. Following her gaze, I saw Bella and Rosalie… and a third person I was certain I'd never met before. A blonde man in a wheelchair was holding Rosalie's hand on his shoulder and staring back at Alice like he was seeing a ghost. She was looking back at him like he was the answer to all her prayers.

"Jasper?" she whispered. She dropped the letter and walked toward the trio, her pace increasing with each stride. I watched in astonishment as the man in the wheelchair reached his arms out to her and she threw herself at him, sobbing uncontrollably. I bent down and picked the letter up off the floor and my eyes immediately went to the parting at the bottom of the page.

"I love you so much.
- Jasper"

I looked back up at my cousin's trembling body in the arms of the blonde man in the wheelchair and felt the air leave my lungs as all the pieces clicked in place in my mind.

He's her soldier.


Squee! It's Jasper! Wheelchair or no wheelchair, that makes my day. I lurve that man. If he were real, Alice'd have some serious competiton. Yipe! *ducks flying espadrille* I said "if he were real", Alice. Jeez. Chill pills, you should take some…

Handicapped hotness aside, I have a couple quick notes about this chapter's title. Yes, I'm so damn nitpicky that I need to talk about the title. You may be (but probably aren't) wondering why I changed the title to "Dear Alice" and left all other references to the song as "Dear Prudence". I have many reasons – among them, the fact that Alice and I both consider it blasphemy to fuck around with Beatles tunes. Edward briefly considered singing it "Dear Alice" but knew that even in her less than perky state Alice would probably chop of his favorite apendage and staple it to his forehead for such a move.

Alice: Oooh! Never thought of that one… *scribbles on Post-It pad*
Kim: Shut it, pixie! My turn now, your turn later. *sigh* That said, the title is "Dear Alice" just because it made such a nice (and completely unplanned, believe it or not) segway into the APOV tale I mentioned so long ago.
Alice: My story!
Kim: AHEM!
Alice: Shutting!
Kim: Thank you. What was I saying? Oh yeah! APOV tale… That's right, if you don't have me on author alert and you didn't notice I'm suddenly the author of two fics instead of one (*gasp!*) you're missing out because it's up now. It's called Go Ask Alice. Go read it. Now. Wait, no, stick around for the rest of my note then go read it.

Well, actually, I guess that pretty much is my note…

And I'm not even going to lie and say "Reviews are better than unexpectedly seeing your soldier come home to you." That'd just be freaking rude to people who actually do have soldiers. People I respect and admire to no end. *hug for anyone fitting that description*

Alice: *hugs back*
Kim: Uhm, I meant real people, Al, but okay… Anywho, floor's all yours.
Alice: YAY! Read my story! Read it! Now!
Kim: I'd listen to her. She can throw a shoe like… I dunno… some good pitcher. I don't speak baseball.
Alice: Babe Ruth? Nolan Ryan? Cy Young?
Kim: Shut up.
Alice: You said the floor was mine…
Kim: Yeah, yeah. *drags pixie out of spotlight*
Alice: *being dragged* READ IT!