Alice found herself nursing a headache as they began their journey to the train. Why would her head not pound? Her arms burned with pain, her stomach was having an all out war with itself, and she had just witnessed the burial of a person she had met in less than one day. It was too much for her to take in right now and all she wanted was some rest.

Solomon's head lay on her lap, she absent mindedly stoked his deep brown hair in thought. He was a beautiful little boy with a small nose that most young children have and well defined eyebrows. He looked a little like Lowell but mostly he showed his mother's soft characteristics. Would he remember her? Alice wondered as she gently drew her swollen thumb down the boy's soft facial skin. She was trying to remember what being four years old was like but it was swallowed by time and dreams and nightmares. She remembered some details- her father's hair was less gray, her mother had a much larger sparkle in her eye, their cat Dinah was a young kitten. But beyond small snapshots she wasn't able to recollect an entire episode. She would be lost to him, wouldn't she?

"Oh Lenore," Alice breathed, placing a hand on her stomach. The wave of nausea passed again and Alice paused to place her fingers before her mouth.

"Alice?" Tarrant asked, rising his head from his slumber. Lowell had fallen over on the seat passed out. He looked as though he had travelled through Hell and back and was given the unfair reward of being able to live- the horrors forever in his mind. "Alice," Tarrant spoke again, running his fingers along her cheeks. Alice shook her head slightly, drawing her head back to reality.

"Mmm?" She turned to look at him. Her eyes were heavy from weeping, mourning, and little sleep. He placed a small kiss on the side of her mouth.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Not really," She answered. His hand reached up to snake up the back of her neck. He gently massaged her head and hair with his rough fingers. Alice breathed in his tea and sweets and sweat and mercury smell. She relaxed against his shoulder, concentrating on the sensations above her mind. It was beginning to relieve her headache.

"What's wrong, my fair one?" He whispered into her hair.

"I want to go home." She answered like the small child she was trying to remember. He placed his face in her hair, whispering softly.

"I know, my love." His voice was thick. "We will get there. Annabelle has faith in us." Alice closed her eyes, trying to remember her friends, perhaps the tea party table. But everything was so fuzzy as though she were trying to look through the thick London fog in order to see it correctly. Trying to remember made her head pound more and the feeling of nausea swept through her again.

"I can't remember, Tarrant." She looked up to him, tears heavy in her deep green eyes. Tarrant frowned at her with his deep pink lips.

"Neither can I, Alice. I am forgetting."

"We can't forget!" She cried. "We can't! We need to get home." Tears stained her cheeks.

"Shhh, Alice. Tears won't do us any good right now." He reached across himself to wipe away some of the droplets from her raw cheeks. She sniffed trying to control her emotions.

"Why did I have to have the curiosity to climb through that bloody mirror anyways? All it has done is got us into trouble." She reached her free hand up to cover her right eye, rubbing it slightly.

"Because you are my Alice and you attract trouble." He kissed her forehead and drew away suddenly. "You are very warm, Alice." He placed a hand to her head.

"I am fine." She pushed her hand away. "All anyone's done here is touch my blasted forehead." She let her head hang at an angle, keeping it from Tarrant.

"No, Alice. You feel feverish." He said with concern and shifted his weight to better touch her forehead. In doing so he jostled Alice which shook the little boy. He awoke with a start and Alice nearly dropped him. She held tightly to his arm as he looked about him.

"Mum?" He asked.

"Shhh," Alice pulled him up onto her lap, cradling him gently. "We're off to see your mum. But we have to take this nice cab and then it's a train ride." She said, trying to sound excited even though her body ached. "Have you ever been on a train before, Solomon?" She asked.

"Ah train?" He looked at her with excitement. "We're gonna ride a train!"

"Yes. You are going to be a good little boy for Aunt Alice and Uncle Tarrant, though, and stay quiet." She pointed to Lowell who twitched in his sleep. "Your father needs his rest. We need to be quiet on the train so that he can sleep some more. He has a very big talk to have with your new mum." He said, brushing his bangs from his eyes.

"Your hair needs cutting," Tarrant remarked and Alice jabbed him with her elbow.

"Not while we're in a cab." She sighed. Tarrant looked at her with a frown.

"Is tha' our train?" The boy asked and Alice looked beyond the cab into the world of London. She noticed that they had arrived at the train station and shook her head.

"Indeed, that is your cab. Now Uncle Tarrant is going to help your father so I am going to need you to stay close to me, you'll do that right?" She smiled. The boy nodded his head. "That's a good lad." She placed a kiss on the top of his head and drew him close. Her teeth were chattering, she didn't remember being this cold earlier. However the rain had been pouring down upon the citizens of London for quite some time , surely the temperature had fallen with it.

"Alice?" Tarrant asked.

"It's nothing. I'm just a bit cold. I need to take care of Solomon, help him get aboard. You grab the bags and Lowell."

"Alice," He interrupted her but Alice was quick to leave the cab as soon as it stopped. Her back was paining her and she couldn't stand to sit in the small contraption any longer. It was growing too crowded. Clutching Solomon to her chest she made her way to the side of the street in patient wait for Lowell and Tarrant. Solomon looked to the train in curiosity.

"Where does the train take us, Auntie Alice?" He asked.

"Home," She whispered, tears filming on her eyes. "The train will take us home."

Alice was pleased to see that Solomon was an obedient little boy. He immediately went to the seat he was instructed to sit in, the right side closest to the window, and looked out at the people on the street. He must have been a young four year old, his features still had more of the little boy chubby. But he was incredibly bright for his age. Alice sighed as she looked at how he sat in the seat, slouched over. His cheeks were still tear stained and he gently sucked one of his thumbs. Alice's heart broke. Nothing would ever be the same for the little bloke once the train stopped, all will have changed. He would not wake up in the same house he had for the past four years, he would never again see his mother, would not hear the bustling sounds of London beneath his house. Alice scolded herself because things would get better for him as well. He wouldn't know hunger, he wouldn't have men coming in to use his mother for their own sluvish gains. Alice closed her eyes, the headache pounding again. She ignored it and hoped to Time that the boy would find love. That Margaret would be able to accept him as she accepted Alice as her sister. But it matter that blood was thicker in this case? Alice pushed the thought from her mind and went to sit next to the boy, wrapping her arm around his small shoulders.

"Auntie Alice," He looked to her as she sat.

"What is it, Sol?" She murmured.

"You're goin' ta be righ' nex' ta me the 'ole train ride righ'?" He asked.

"Of course, Sol," She smiled warmly. "Nothing is going to happen to you, I promise. Don't be afraid."

"Th' train is ve'y big." He said quietly.

"It is, but that is so they can make the windows big enough to look out of them. Otherwise you'd miss everything that was happening." She leaned close to his ear and whispered. "You have to keep watch out of them else you'll miss everything." He nodded his head and placed his hand against the window. Lowell and Tarrant had settled into their seats, Tarrant sat straight across from her. He smiled at her shyly.

"Are you sure you're alright, Alice?" He asked. Lowell looked over.

"You look like you've been through Hell and back, Alice." He noted.

"Observe who is talking." She said coyly. Lowell shook his head.

"No, you look very ill."

"I'm fine. It's just a headache," She said, turning her look to Solomon.

"And a fever." Tarrant spoke up.

And cramps, back pain. She thought but didn't dare say anything aloud. "I really am fine."

"I'll have Dr. Havershim take a look at you once we arrive back at the Mansion. Perhaps you are disagreeing with your little one." He gestured toward her stomach. Alice sighed.

"I am sure it's nothing. Can you please convince my husband of this?" She looked to her brother in law. Lowell glanced to Tarrant and shook his head.

"I'm afraid it's a man's place to worry about his woman." He answered.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" Tarrant spoke up. "Not that I mind, I don't mind at all. As a matter of fact it's quite welcome and don't feel that you have to change now or anything or decide that Alice and I are no longer seen as joined in your world which I suppose in looking at it we aren't because-"

"Tarrant!" Alice said with a laugh.

"Mghm, I'm fine." He shook his head. Alice reached a weak arm across the table, placing it on his knee.

"I haven't heard you ramble in so long, my love." She smiled. He took her hand in his, looking into her deep green eyes with concern. "It's very welcomed. I miss it and our tea parties." She said with a smile.

"Alice?" He asked. Alice could imagine them at a tea party, as if it were happening now.

"In fact we are at one now." She laughed. He looked at her curiously. "Please, my mad man, try a scone." Her eyes felt heavy again, her stomach lurching. The train let out a loud whistle and its wheels began to turn slowly. Alice was snapped from the tea party and took her hand from Tarrant, placing it to her forehead. It was blazing hot but she ignored it. She merely had a cold or something, caught it from exhaustion and the wet London climate no doubt.

"'Ere goes Lo'don." Solomon spoke up from his watching at the window.

"Yes, there she goes." Lowell said with a smile. "We shall visit again. I shall bring you and Robert when you both are a little older." He explained.

"Wave goodbye, Sol." Alice whispered. The little boy's chubby hand waved on the glass, smearing it slightly. Alice chuckled and kissed his temple. "Very good, little boy, now is the time for goodbyes. In a short bit, however, it will be appropriate for hellos." A strong wave of nausea passed and Alice clenched her stomach tightly. The boy went back to watching the window.

"Ah will watch ta windew Auntie Alice. I don' wan' ta miss an'thin;." He breathed.

"Alice, Alice?" Lowell looked to Alice gently.

"I think I am going to be sick." Alice stood up, running out the door. Tarrant was fast on her heels. She managed to make it to the train's wash room and vomited violently into the sink.

"My fair one? Alice?" Tarrant knocked fervently. Alice whipped her mouth on the back of her hand using the wash basin to rinse it once she was done.

"I'm fine, Tarrant," She lied. Bile worked its way into her throat again and she on her knees writing in pain. What was going on?

"Alice, come out!" He called. She gritted her teeth another vomiting spasm overcame her. She threw up into a metal bowl this time. She heard the door creak open, and then she heard footsteps close behind her. The washroom was small and the other person could hardly fit with her on the ground. Familiar feeling hands caressed her shoulder.

"Oh Alice." Tarrant breathed. She began to cry again. How many times would she sob? When would she ever feel normal again?

"I think I'm just sick, Tarrant." She tried to hold back more tears. He leaned himself against the door, splaying his feet out and she crawled in between them, collapsing on his chest. He stroked her hair and she curled up into a ball as he whispered to her poems of Old. Her body rebelling in every possible way it could. Soon she fell asleep in his arms, exhausted. The next thing she remember was waking up with terrible back pain on her seat in the train, Lowell had whispered to her.

"We've finally reached home."