They got home. Everyone entered the house and Zelena stepped away from the door, knowing Alice was clearly stressed out and would likely be uncomfortable still.
Alice glanced over to her. She'd wanted to go into her fort. She still did. But was Zelena mad? She'd thrown something she wasn't sure if it was okay to throw or not. She'd just wanted to go into her fort. But it ws hard to ask for things she needed. And things she wanted were even harder. She'd learned from a really young age it wasn't worth trying. Alice sat down. She would just wait. Maybe Zelena wouldn't be angry? Maybe she'd just want her to go to her fort.
"Okay, I know that was stressful," Zelena told Alice. She knew it'd been difficult to...ok Zelena had no idea what exact thing had caused Alice to get upset. But something had. And it was okay, she wasn't going to discourage Alice from finding ways to explain she was upset. Even if someone else thought she was a bad parent for it. "Here, do you want to get Luna's vest and harness off and then we can figure out what you want to do, or do you want to leave it on?"
Alice nodded. She didn't know how to take it off. She'd seen Zelena do it a lot but still didn't understand. She was always too distracted trying to decide if anyone was going to hurt her.
Alice tried and failed to get the vest off.
"Sorrysorrysorry." Zelena didn't ask her to do a lot. She hated that she couldn't do what she asked her. She wasn't useful. She needed to be. I don't care about you, but you have your uses. Alice wanted to curl up in her fort and cry and think of how she could just do something, anything honestly, right. But she couldn't. She could cry later. When no one could see her.
"It's okay, took me a little while to learn how to do it too." This wasn't at all a lie, that harness had taken a while to figure out. "Look, take this off first, and then the vest. Like this."
Zelena showed Alice and she nodded. She wanted to try. She didn't want Zelena's help with this any more. She never really had but she didn't know how to telll her that so had given up on asking to do it herself. Zelena put the vest an hanress away. And Alice was exhausted. She just wanted to go into her room and sleep. Maybe cry before she did. But she wanted sleep.
What did she know that it might be okay to say to Zelena? She knew Archie had been okay with her telling him to go away. Would that get her what she wanted? Or would Zelena yell? She knew eveyone said Zelena wouldn't hurt her, and Archie had made a good argument that Zelena would have done it by now but she was still scared. It could be okay. It might be. Alice looked at the ground. Please don't hurt me. I just want to go sleep.
"Goaway." Alice muttered it at the ground. She flinched. It might have been the wrong thing to say. Or speaking at all might have been something she shouldn't have done.
Zelena was suprised. Alice didn't tend to express what she wanted without some prompting. She likley really wanted to be left alone.
"Ok. I can go away."
Zelena got up and walked away. She had no idea what had posessed Alice to ask for what she wanted so clearly, but was glad she had. Even if it hurt a little knowing that the first thing she'd been clear about wanting had been for Zelena to go away. It was a little hard not to tak ethat perosnally ven knowing that Alice was genuinely scared of nearly everyone she met and tended to prefer to be alone with her dog and her toys. Zelena just wanted her to be happy. But it still stung.
Alice thought for a moment as Zelena was walking away. It had worked, but not the way she'd wanted. She just wanted to hide in her fort. She'd just ask Luna. She'd wanted Zelena to tell her it was okay but she'd left when asked to and that didn't make sense to Alice either. Zelena didn't understand. But she hadn't hurt her. And she never got upset when she asked Luna. She really hoped that wouldn't change. Luna made her feel better, no matter how scared she was Luna was right there if she needed her.
"Canigoroom?" Alice mumbled at the floor and Luna helped her to her room where they both quickly fell alseep.
Zelena cleaned up a bit around the house, thinking over how she was going to make sure the waiting area of Archie's office didn't bother Alice too much when the door bell rang.
Zelena answered it, sure it had likely woken Alice up.
Archie was standing at the door with papers in his hands.
"Hey."
"Didn't wake you, did I?"
"Me? No. Alice? Probably."
Archie winced a little. Alice needed her sleep, she'd been forced into being ever so slightly more active for the first time in her life months before and still hadn't fully adjusted.
"Sorry."
"it's fine. Did you leave your keys or something?"
"No, but forgot to give yout these," Archie held up papers. "Didn't think the waiting room in my office would neccesarily go over well, so forms for her visit next week."
Archie handed Zelena the forms and she scanned through them
"Vaccination records? Does she need those?"
"Well, yes. Which I need to talk to you about. Alice really needs to see a doctor as soon as possible. We really have just a little idea of what went on in that tower, the psychological effects are pretty obvious. But their could be medical ones as well. And she defintley needs a few vaccines, she spent so much time around just one other human,"
"Not a human in my book."
"Well Alice's immune sytem is likely quite weakened either way. She needs t see a doctor. Preferabbly before next week."
Zelena grabbed the bridge of her nose and let out an audible groan. That was ging to be a nightmare. Zelena could already think of at least three things that would easily send Alice into a catonic state of fear, and that was just in the waiting room alone. BUt Archie was right, it was neccesary. And it was not something Zelena was looking forward too.
"Do I call the doctor's office and tell them about Luna? Can she even bring Luna?"
"No. And yeah Luna can come."
"This is going to be a bloody nightmare."
"Yeah, I'd say it might go okay, but can't promise you that. Good luck. See you in a week."
A/N: Any ideas for the doctors visit? Anybody? Seriously.