A/N: Please read and review!

Steve had started to notice that Alice was more quiet and more withdrawn than ever before. Something was bothering her, that much he could tell from her even though she would have refused to speak about it to anyone else. There came a point where he was starting to become more concerned for her the longer she would clearly be that upset.

"Are you sure she's going to be alright?" Steve had quietly asked her friend, Emma.

Emma was silent for a brief moment. Steve could see she was trying to decide what she could actually say to him. Loyal to her friend to the end, She could see Steve was very concerned for Alice's sake, so she realized she could speak frankly with Steve.

"I want to believe she will be," Emma had to eventually admit to him. "But, there was only one other time I've seen her be this upset. It was after the death of her father, Jonathan Kent. But. . ." Her friend had to shake her head. "Even then, she refused to talk to anyone else about it."

She paused for a moment as she had looked back at him like she was trying to decide what she was going to say to him. Emma took a step to the side like she was going to allow him into the apartment she was sharing with Alice.

"Maybe you can try to talk to her," Emma said to him. "She might actually listen to you."

Steve had gravely nodded as he had walked into the apartment when Emma had opened the door for him. She hung back to allow the two of them some privacy.

He could see Alice was sitting on the couch with her head in her hands. She barely looked up at him. When she had realized he was there. That was probably the most vulnerable he had ever seen her, and he was quickly at her side to figure out what he was even going to say to her.

"Did you see that doctor?" Steve had asked her, realizing she had been upset since then.

"Yeah," she quietly said, but she was shaking her head over that. "Inconclusive. Theories. Nothing more than that. Couldn't republish the article on the Caves. But, that's not why I'm upset."

Alice quickly became very quiet, and she was staring off into the space in front of her. She was far too quiet. Steve had to figure out what he could say to her to help her feel much better.

"Would you tell me why you're so upset?" Steve had quietly asked her.

"I learned a little about my birth parents," she had said to him after awhile.

That was when she had looked up at him. He could see all of the emotions that were in her eyes. She was mostly lost, trying to decide what she had really had to do within her life. Everything she had believed about herself had turned out to be very wrong.

"What did you learn about them?" Steve had asked her.

If he had not been looking at her in that moment, he would have missed the look that had come across her face. She was not sure if she should tell him anything. Her eyes flashed as she was debating about what she should actually say to him, even though it was still bothering her.

She had let out a breath. "I've always help my birth parents up on a high pedestal. Always." She chewed the inside of her cheek as she was quietly thinking to herself. "I learned some things about them that. . .knocks them off that pedestal. . .hard to the ground. . .They weren't the good people I had thought they would be. . ."

That was when Alice had suddenly stopped speaking. She would not look at him, and she had pressed her lips together. She was still pretty upset over what had been happening. Steve had been looking at her, trying to find a way to speak to her to help her better deal with what had made her so upset. Alice had so easily helped him in the past, so he had wanted to return that kind of thing.

"They didn't have a hand in raising you," Steve had said to her.

That was enough to make her look up at him, but he could already see his words were having a small effect on her. That was going to help him know what else he was going to say to her to continue to be able to help her.

"The couple who found you in that cornfield were the ones who had raised you," Steve continued to say to her. "They were good people. You don't need to worry about your birth parents."

Alice went to say something else to him, but Steve shook his head. He was not finished speaking to her just yet. She was trying to argue with him, but he was not going to allow that to even happen.

"You have more of the connection to that farming family," Steve said to her. "You live by their values. . ." Steve was looking directly into her eyes. That was when he was starting to realize she had piercing icy blue eyes. They were the type that could cut straight through another individual. "You don't need to worry about whether or not you would become like your birth parents.

She let out another breath when had finished. His words clearly did have a positive effect on her. She almost gave him a very small smile, and he was able to return it to her without even thinking about it. It was that easy. He was somehow able to pull her out of her dark mood.

When he left after a while, Emma went into the apartment before quickly coming out, being surprised.

"How did you do that?" She had asked him.

"What?" Steve had asked her.

"That was the worst I've seen her," she said to him. "But, you were able to do what no one else had been able to do."

"I was. . ." Steve was trying to say to her. "Able to know what to say to her. . .I guess. . ."

Emma was wearing a thoughtful look as she had looked back at him. She was starting to guess on something else entirely. "At least. . .of course."