Killian Jones couldn't believe any of his senses. He'd spent a decade trying to find a way to break his daughter free of a prison. And he'd finally done it! She wasn't trapped any more. She didn't have to feel trapped any more!

"What now, papa?" Alice asked him. Her eyes were filled with the same curiosity they always were. A question he'd heard her say a hundred times now had a different meaning. She could finally leave the confines of their home. No not their home anymore. Killian had found them a small house not too far away from a nearby school. Alice would finally be able to go to school. He had done his best to educate her but he was 200 years old, perfect for history lessons but not neccesarily so great for current science.

Alice didn't know what to do. Everything was so bright and everything was so close to her. She wanted to touch everything but also her eyes burned as the sun shined in it and her feet tickled so much it almost hurt as the grass touched her soles. Her ears pounded as the birds sang louder than she'd ever heard them and something made a weird sound she couldn't describe.

"I found us a place to live, with a big yard and no magical barrier."

Alice was excited but this was too much. She wanted things to be a little less for just a moment. Alice shut her eyes tight. It stopped the burning sensation in her eyes but she couldn't get rid of the sounds she'd longed to hear.

Killian notice Alice's eyes shut and worried about her.

"Are you alright, Starfish?"

Alice shook her head.

"The sun's really bright," Alice blinked letting her eyes readjust to the new feeling of the burning star being close enough to radiate warmth and light. It still hurt but she wanted and needed to see in front of her.

They made their way to the house, Alice alternating between pure excitment at all the things she'd never expereinced before and discomfort from the sheer intensity of things.

Killian didn't want to throw too much at Alice at once. She'd spent a decade locked away in that tower. The only voices she'd heard for most of it had been his and her own. He had hired a babysitter for a short time but that hadn't gone so well. Killian winced at the memory of a mistake Alice had long forgotten. The only voice besides her own she could remember was his. He worried that changing too much too fast would overwhelm her and she wouldn't know how to handle it. He'd already seen the sun bother her. He didn't know how he'd get her used to how bright the world was. He felt a pang of guilt as he wished he'd found a way to her out of the tower sooner. Soon enough that it would feel like a faded memory from some far off dream. But he hadn't and it was all she'd known. And now she'd have to adjust.

"Papa," Alice was running around the same way she always did. Now if she fell he actually would be able to get help, so he worried quite a bit less as she uttered the words "Watch this!" and proceeded to jump haphazardly off the counter she'd been sitting on. It still sent waves of panic through his veins but he felt safer knowing she wasn't stuck inside this building.

He laughed a little, hiding the momentary panic. She was fine and she was having fun. "Okay, Starfish. I know you're having fun but maybe we play a different game for a bit? Or explore a little?"

Alice liked his latter idea much better. She'd never been anywhere so big! Well, she'd never been anywhere at all before, she supposed. "Aye!"

And with that Alice bounded off around the house looking at everything and running back to ask Killian every question she could think of. He understood she was just excited but he hadn't really been sure how to answer some of them. What did you say to a ten year old asking

"Why are there so many doors papa?"?

The question had been preceded by a suprisngly difficult conversation about what a door even was. He'd known what a door was up until Alice had asked him to explain it. There were often questions she'd ask him that he'd find difficult to explain with her limited life experiences. He had a feeling that she would only grow more curious about the world around her now that she could actually experience it for herself.

And followed by "What's this do?" as Alice messed with the lock on the door to her room. Which to her just looked like a fun toy at first. Everything to her had always been a toy or a game until she was told otherwise. There was only so much space in the tower and she used it to her advantage, giving way to her vibrant imagination and curiosity.

Killian sighed. Preparing himself for round two of her toddler years. She'd wanted to know everything about everything and then some. At the time he would have sworn he'd answered at least a thousand questions about why things worked the way they did including questions he wasn't sure anyone else had ever thought of. No he was almost certain no one in the history of humanity had ever asked if towers really sprung up around young children when they did something they shouldn't have that they couldn't remember doing. Killian hadn't slept too much that night. He'd stayed awake comforting Alice, reassuring her that she hadn't done anything wrong. That it wasn't her fault. That the tower wasn't something fair. He'd found a book she'd read that had planted the idea in her head and he'd silently cursed the witch that had trapped her in the first place. Alice had fallen asleep in the crook of his arm with tears he'd wished he could do more than wipe away. And he'd refused to move and risk waking her.

How'd he explain this one? Killian thought for a moment. Some of Alice's questions he'd just never thought about before.

"It's a lock."

"What's a lock?" the tone of her voice was filled with wonder, her entire face lighting up at the prospect of new knowledge.

Killian understood that Alice didn't know and so had the patience for her questions.

"It's a thing to keep doors shut when they need to be. Mostly to keep people out." Was that a good enough explanation? Killian hoped it satisfied her.

Alice tilted her head. She was thinking. Alice quickly decided she didn't like the thought of the lock. If it could keep other people out it could keep her in.

"No."

Killian blinked. The description might not have been the best course of action. He'd been honest with her but perhaps not clear enough.

"What'd you mean, Starfish?" he quirked his eyebrow and looked at her. She was shifting back and forth on her feet, her pent up energy coming to the surface as it always did more when she was upset or frightened. She was biting her bottom lip. It was obvious something was bothering her. "What's wrong?"

"If it can keep other people out it can keep me in, can't it?" Oh. Killian's face fell.

Killian sat down on the ground, leaning his back against the wall and criss-crossing his legs. "Come here, sit down with me."

Alice sat down a mirrored his body language. "It won't, I promise."

Alice nodded, clearly still nervous.

"How do you know?"

Killian was so angry at the witch that had created this fear. His daughter was the kindest person he'd ever met. Granted, all of her kindess was directed at Killian, stuffed toys and that one spider that had somehow gotten into the tower when she was three. She didn't deserve what she'd been through.

"I just know, Starfish." Alice looked at him and quirked her eybrow the same way he did.

"But how?" Alice insisted. Killian's answer hadn't been good enough.

"I won't let it happen," Killian mentally added the word again. "And you never have to lock the door. It's there if you want to but I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do."

"Does this mean I don't have to eat broccli anymore?" Alice quipped. Okay, she'd definitley inherited his cheekiness. But she still had to eat her vegtables.

Killian laughed. "Locking the door is an option, closing it is an option, but you still have to eat your vegetables."

Alice pouted a little but conceed to Killian's point.

"Alright, papa."

They both got up and Alice helped him make dinner. He'd give her a week or so to adjust before she started school. And he'd go to the school to enroll her tommorow.