Alice was still tucked underneath the counter as the doctor walked in. Luna was still laying in front of the seat she'd been in earlier, where Robin had been sitting next to her.

The doctor looked at Robin. "You must be Alice."

"I'm not, Alice is right over there."

The docotr looked confused for a moment. There wasn't anyone else in the room. "Where?"

Robin pointed again.

Any hope the docotr had previously had for this appointmrnt to gk well was immediatly shattered as he noticed Alice curling even further into the corner of the underside of the counter.

"Hi."

"Goaway." Alice mutterrd ir mostly at the ground. It really hadn't been working that well but she just wanted to be left alone. She hated this. She'd had so many strangers askimg her questions she didn't knlw the answer to and making her do things she didn't like. And the ground was cold and everything was brighter than normal and she didn't like it.

"Alice, I know it's rewlly scary but can you come out from under there for just a little while?" Zelena knew Alice was scared but hoped it'd be easier if she exited her chosen hiding spot. Alice nodded and crawled out. "Thank you."

"Okay, hop up on this table and we'll get started." No. The table was rrally high up and it looked like a smaller version of mother's bed. Which she was never allowed to be in or on except to make it for mother. And jumping or hopping was bad. Alice shook her head. She really really didn't want to get in trouble. No matter what she did it'd be wrong. It was always wrong. But sometimes she managed to guess which thing was the least wrong and then mother wouldn't hurt her as much. Maybe even not at all sometimes. And there was no gursbtee these new people wouldn't hurt her just the same. Alice darted her eyes around the room. Zelena had asked her to leave where she'd been hiding, she hadn't said she couldn't go back. And it was fine if she asked, wasn't it. That seemed to be what Zelena's rule was. Or at least the closet thing to it that Alice was comfortable with.

"Lunacanimove?" Luna nodded and Alice warily pushed herself back undernesth the counter.

Zelena let out a slight groan. Alice was now even more frightened than she'd started. Alice flincjed but no one noticed, distracted by eveeything else and the counter shikded most of her movements from view.

"What is happening?" The doctor was concerned. He'd come in to ask a few questions and had quickly realized his job was not going to be that simple.

"She's scared," Zelena offered an answer as she got up and thrn sat down a few feet away from Alice.

"You're okay. It's okay. I know you're scared. Do you think you can handle just coming a little closer." Alice stared at her. She just wanted to be alone. A d she wanted to go back to her fort. She was tired and she knew the longer she stayed here the sooner someone would hurt her. She didn't like this place. And at least where she was sitting blocked the light from her eyes. It was brighter than anything she'd seen. And she didn't want to be near it. And she wasn't sure if this new stranger was scary or not. She knew hoe to recgonize when mother was the most likely to hurt her. The days it was best to avoid her if at all possible. The days she moght actually be okay to say a word or two to her. The times it was maybe safe to tell her she'd finished something she'd ask. The times it definitely wasn't. She could recognize those patterns and she tried to act acoridngly. But itbwas hard. And sometimes mother suddenly hurt her for a reason she never explained and it left Alice to be on guard more often than not. But the first person she'd seen had scared her, the next person hadn't, then the scary person came back, and now thid new person. Maybe he wasn't so scary. But she couldn't promise herself that so she didnXt want to risk it. Patterns existed but the pattern could change. And then she'd judt be in pain. And she didn't want to deal with that. It hurt and then thinking about why hurt more. She didn't want to feel the way being hurt mde her feel. It was a reminder that no matter what she did she was never good enough for mother. She'd tried to be, even when she hadn't known that the word good even existed. Bjt the closest thing to being told she was good was a few extra days in between the times mother had beaten her. And thosebwere usually just because mother was too tired to bother.

"Goaway," Alice muttered what she wanted at the white tiles underneath her.

"Is no one going to explain?" The doctor was genuinely worried now. He'd never seen anyone hide from his presence. Needles, yes. But not just when je came in for a few quick questions

"I will in a moment," Zelena forced herself to keep her tone level, snapping at the doctor would only frighten Alice as well. "But right now I'm busy." Zelena turned back to Alice. "I know it's scary and that you don't want to be here. And that you've had to deal with way too much today. But it's okay. We can go at a pace that's comfortable for you. If you need to take a nreak we can." Zelena really hoped this doctor had more pateince than the first nurse had or she was definitely over promising. "Ok,so do you think you can come out of there or can you not? I'm asking. It's not an order. I won't hurt you if you aren't ready. It's okay." Zelena hwld back the tears she felt fighting as she swore to Alice she wasn't going to hurt her for the most basic thing she'd been denied for so long.

"Why would that even be a thought?" The doctor asked, his concern skyrocketing.

"Ok, you and I need to habe a chat. Hallway, now." Zelena's sharp tone was still missing from her voice. It'd faded over the many months lf having to be careful of every word and action.

The doctor stepped out into the hall with Zelena."What was that about?"

"A while back my daughter made a friend with a kid that needed help, I took her in. That's Alice."

"I know that much. Why is she so frightened."

"Because her mother was quite honestly the most vile person I've ever had the displeasure of knowing of. She tortured her into believing she needed permission to move or speak. It's taken months and a lot of dr. Hopper's help to get her to be even remotely okay around people. And even then it's not great. She trust basically no one besides her dog and there's not a thing anyone can do about that. She may never stop being scared of everything but you will not make it bloody worse. You, whether you like it or not, are going to be patient. You are going to go at a pace Alice sets and I don't give a damn if that means we're here all day. Your nurse already scared her earlier. And I will not allow anyone to make her feel the way her mother made her feel. I promised her I wouldn't hurt her, and I damn well won't let anyone else."

Zelena blinked. She'd been holding that in for far too long. All of her rage at the woman that had created all of Alice's pain and the lingering effects of it had stayed bottled up just long enough to spill out at the doctor. She'd gotten busy with other things and had been missing her own sessions with Archie.

"Okay, that's fine. What's the beat way to approach her?"

"Just tell her every single thing you're going to do before you do it. Let her know she has a choice when there's a choice. Don't touch her at all if it can be avoided. If it can't let her know first. Be extra careful if you need to touch her arms. She hates when anything's near or on her arms or hands. She loves little things like candy or stickers when she does something good. Or at least that's what we've been doing to encourage hee to talk a bit more on her own. She likely won't speak a lot to you. But we can try."

The doctor took in all of the information Zelena gave to him. Zelena left out a few things. She didn't want to scare the doctor off by mentioning Alice's more undesirable habit. Maybe ot wouldn't be a problem. Maybe of she didn't say it loud they'd make it through this visit with minimal amounts of that behavior. Zelena knew Alice didn't yet have any other way that she felt confortsble with to Express how frustrating it must be that no one around her seemed to understand what she was going through. She couldn't even tell them fully what the tower had been like. All they had were guesses. And Alice likely had to live with those memories that she hadn't shared with anyone. Zelena wondered if Alice wanted to or if she wanted to hide what had happened. Zelena had been bitter at her father for hurting her. But was Alice angry at her mother or had she scared her so much she believed whatever lies she'd told her? Did Alice even know how to hate anyone? Did she know that was a thing?

"Ok let's do this," the doctor told Zelena whonshook her head in preperation with a silent prayer to the gods that it would at least go somewhat well. thry bkth reentered the room and Zelena went and sat in fromt lf wjere alice was still hiding.

"Sorrysorry." Alice didn't know if she'd dome anything wrong this time. She always apologized more than she was sure she needed to. It helped. Or it made her feel better about the pain if it didn't actually stop her from being hurt. It just made her feel like she was doing something right. And it was the only thing she could say without being told she wasn't supposed to. She barely regnoized the sound of her owm voice in the tower. She spoke only when mother wanted her to, for the most part and apologizing was a way to have some kind of communication wkth anyone or amything outside of her own head that didn't hurt. Which she couldn't get any other way when mother was there. She could sneak in thr smallest conversation with a dust bunny or a dish when she was there alone and cleaning. But that was it and she only tried that when she knew no one could hesr her and when she just had to tell something that the pain was bothering her or that her dreams had turned into a nightmare that was somehow better than what it felt like to be awake.

"You're okay, it's alright. This doctor is just going to talk to you okay. He may need to do one or two other things. But he can show you on bear first. And you can tell him lr me or luna or robin or bear if you need a break. It'll be okay. I want you to come out of there, but only if you're okay with it. It's fine if you're not. I knlw it's scary and it's alright to be scared. Do you think you can handle it or can you not? It's okay if not,"

Alice nodded shakily. She just wanted to go back to her fort and be left alone. And every time she thought she was done another person approached her. But she got stickers from some of them. Amd she liked that. She'd never been rewarded for anything inna tower. No matter how quiet and still she was she still always slipped up at some point and the only thing she earned was pain and the reminder that she could never leave the tower, not even to bring the only peeson she knew a flower. She'd dreamed she'd done that lots of times but it'd never been real. The drwam akways ended before the reality of what mother would actually do if she tried that came crashing into her mind.

Alice just wanted this over. She came out lf the corner and Luna came closer to her.

"Okay, that was really good. You're doing so good. I'm just going to stand up and go sit back in the chair I was in." Zelena did exaxtly as she'd said she was going to.

The doctor realized that when Zelena had said tonwarn Alice before every action she'd meant every action. Okay thisbwas going to be a long road.

"Hi. I'm Dr. Pint." He paused. The formal title was well earned but this girl was beyond terrafied of authority. He needed to just be as close to what she'd get from a friend as he could. "Acrually, I'm James. I'm sitting down. I'm not going to hurt you, okay?"

Alice nodded. It might be a lie but it was fine so far. She just had tonget through as much kf this as there was and then maybe sje'd be allowed to do what she wanted. If she could manage to tell Zelena what that was. She flinched as he sat down but didn't react much more.

"Ok, I'm going to ask questions. They might be a little embaressing or gross but you just hsbe to try to answer. Think you can do that?"

Alice glanced at Zelena. She needed permission and she wasn't asking Luna when there was a stranger sitting so close to her. Too risky.

Zelena nodded. "It's okay, you can do that. If not, I can help. But you've got this. It's just like with Archie when he ask you to answer a question. Okay? You may just have tobtry to use a word or two instead of pointing. Do you think you can do that?"

Alice shook her head. She hated talking. And if every question required a few words it,xd be a lotnofnwords at one time.

"Book."

"No, you can't read while ai'm asking questions," he dcotr's tone was calm but telling Alice nonstill scared her. She flinched.

" .hurt?" Alice quickly realozed in her panick sje'd talked more than she should have. "Sorrysorry.".

"No, it's okay."

"Dr. Pint, again a word. Alice, you're okay. You're okay. You didn't do anything wrong. It's okay. Pet Luna. Get her to sit in your lap. You're safe. You're not going to be hurt. I promise."

Alice nodded and had Luna lay in her lap. Zelena and the doctor walked into the hallway again.

"You can't tell her no. I forgot to tell you that. The word no is the worst thing to say to her. It frwaks her out. I'm not sure if it's just being told no thaf bothers her or if it's what comes after it in her mind. But we don't tell her no. We also try not to deny her anything she ask for if itbcan be helped because she barely ask for things. If she wants it enough that she's asking for it, I don't think kt's okay to tell her no. And her book isn't a reading book. It's a picture dictionary she uses to communicste when she doesn't knlw rhw words for somethijg or if she's too scared or tired to actually try to use the words she knows. So yeah, round two. Hopefully this goes better."

They rentered the room where alice had started to calm down.

Alice looked up at Zelena. Could this please just be over? She waan't going tonask for that but itbwas taking such a long time and she didn't fully knlw what to expect. It'd go faster if she coukd point to wjat she needed tonsay.

"Book."

"Okay," Zekena agreed. She wasn't sure how helpful it'd be with medical qiestions but if it made Alice feel even remltely more secure in the doctor's office enviorment, she'd let her have it. She was gkad she'd remevered to bring it. She set ir down close enough that Alice could reach it without actually having tonget close to her. Alice opened it to a random page an srumbled upon a psrson with a similar out as the person in front of her. She flipped the book around and pointed to it. Doctor.

"Yeah, I'm a doctor. Good job." Thr last part was said with a quesrioning inflection and a glance towards Zelena. He had no idea what was an wasn't okay to do around Alice. Thidbwasn't something he dealt with every day.

Zelena nodded. "Okay, Alice are you read for James to ask you a few questions?" Alice nodded shakily.

James asked the first question and Alice stared at him blankly. She'd only fully understood about half of his sentence. "Okay, we can come back to that one."

He went thrlugh a few more questions, met with the same or similar levels of Alice not understanding. She understood when people spoke to her but she'd not been exposed to a lot of the words he was using. She had no reason to have been. She had no idea what a vaccine was. What a blood test was. What it meant to have a check-up. What it meant to have surgery. She didn't get these things. And even the things she had expierinced the words for were bigger or different then what she would have used.

It didn't take long before Alice grew frustrated. She always felt like other people didn't understand her. That was a daily thing. She didn't speak enough or use enough words to be understood. And no one around her was as scared as she was. Which she didn't ubderstand. It was normal to be hurt. It was normal to be scared and to need help from a dog when it stopped being a daily thing that youbwere hurt. That was what her life was like. So why didn't anyone else have a dog? Archie had one. But he didn't seem scared. Would she ever be able to feel like nothing was scary like he could? Did she even want to? It was something she'd groen so used to. She didn't knpw anyrhing else. What would she even do if she managed to behave the way he did? Help people like je did? He was helping her. That made sense. It was some kind of vauge goal beyond not being hurt for a day or tow. A different kind of goal that actually felt like it could happen eventually. Maybe. Alice doubted she'd get that far. She still couldn't hesr the word no witout launching into a state of fear that turned her insides and demanded that she apologize kver and kver again. Why didn't snyone else feel like that? How was nesrly everyone around her so okay? They hid their pain too well and it didn't make sense. She'd never been that gokd at hiding the fact she was in pain and she'd sropped so much as wincing years before she'd met Robin. And now she didn't even understand a pwrson asking her what were supposed to be quick questions.

[I''m frustrated. You don't ubderstand me and now I can't ubderstsnd you.]

Alice threw Bear at the ground.

"Don't throw things," the doctor scolded, his calm demanor wuickly being tested by the fact a stuffed toy had been laubched near him, but not quite at him.

Alice blinked. But it was okay to throw her own things. Was it not? She didn't ubderstand. Were the rukes chsnging? Or had she misubdersrood them from the beggining?

[I don't get it. Why's nothing make sense. Why can't you make sense.]

Alice threw her book down and it made a loud thud causing her to flinch and launch into another strand of apologies.

"Stop," the doctoe told her. Which was a mllt point as she was n't holding anything ekse she coukd throw.

"Don't tell jer ro stop," Zelena defended. "Are you scared or is it something else"

"Else."

"Ok, is it frustration or something else?"

Alice nodded.

"Okay, what'a wrong?"

Alice had thrown her book. And she didn't want to talk anymore. The doctor was angry at her. Alice grabbed her wrist. When it had hurt Zelena had helped her fix it. It made it feel better. Maybe she'd remeber that that had caused pain. She didn't want to be hurt. She was worried she was going to be hurt because she couldn't answer the questions.

Zelena had no idea what Alice was frustrated by. Was she hurt?

"Are you in pain?"

Alice shook her head she grsbbed her wrist again and shook her head.

"No pain. No hurt?"

Alice nodded. "You don't want to be hurt?"

Alice shook her head. That was close but not quite. She was svared she was going to be.

She pointed at Luna. Luna helped when she was scared.

Zelena wanted to know w in hell Archie managed to make thid lookneasy during every visit that he'd had entire conversations with Alice in thid half charade. Wait, he let Alice draw what she was trying tonsay when he just couldn't get there from her slight movements. And also for some reason Alice wasn't as scared of him as she was of everyone else. Pongo helped ease her fears.

But what did Luna have to do with this? She helped Alice when she was scared. Wait scared. That was it.

"Are you scared you're going to be hurt."

Alice nodded.

"You're not going to get hurt, I promise. Is it because you couldn't answer the questions?"

Alice nodded. "It's okay, those questions weren't the easiest. I'll answer them for you. You're fine. Do you tjink we can let the doctor finish this up?"

Alice nodded.

The doctor had gotten nothing je'd needed but he had no desire to finish attempting this anymore. He and zelena stepped out i to the hall so she could answer rhe questions Alice hadn't ubderstood and then told her that the phembotomist would be by to do a blold draw and the neccesary vaccines shortly.

A/N: this chaper is already hella behind schedule(lies, i have no schedukes) and damn near 4k words lomg. We'll move on to the shots and such next chaper. Mostly bc i have no plan. I'm a very uborganized writer, my friends. Please excuse the probably higher amount than average mispellings. It's 11pm and i typed this on my phone. After a failed attempt at going to the dentist.