A/N: To any guest reviewers that couldn't reiew a few chapters back: SORRY, my bad. Clicked the wrong button and disabled guest reviews when trying to do something else. It's fixed now. On with the story. Thanks to bstormhands for the help with this story again

Zelena finally had a idea. She wanted Alice to do something, anything besides cleaning without waiting for her to tell her she could. And she thought her plan was flawless. Alice tended to stay hidden inside two of the corners of the house. And that was fine but Alice needed to move. She needed to be able to do things without waiting for Zelena. There had already been a disaster with Alice needing the bathroom. And a teenage girl should not be waiting for anyone's permission to do that. So if she could just get her to stay away from the space that she hid in maybe she'd move around a bit?

Zelena crouched down next to the little corner Alice liked to sleep in. It had quickly become Alice's room once they realized she didn't like the guest room they'd offered her. She had told Robin it was too big and Zelena told her it was fine if she wanted to sleep here. The area was filled with pillows and blankets and had a blanket thrown over the top.

"Hey, Alice" Alice looked at her. Did she need something? She waited for some kind of instruction.

"I'm going to be gone a little while, okay?"

Alice nodded. What was she supposed to do?

"You can do anything, you just can't stay in your room." Zelena thought this was a clear enough request. This way Alice wouldn't just sit in the corner of the living room until she got home. She'd be able to go get food or go to the bathroom if she needed to. And she wouldn't think she had to clean whatever was closest to her.

Zelena got up and left right after telling Alice what she expected her to do while she was gone.

Alice was confused. Do what? What was she supposed to do? She crawled out of her little corner and pressed her back up against the wall. This was a weird request. Mother always told her where to go and what to do. She never told her what not to do unless she was already doing it.

Alice glanced around the room. What did Zelena want her to do? She hadn't made it clear. She needed to do whatever it was Zelena wanted. She didn't know what she wanted. Alice started to have a hard time breathing. In. Out. In. Out. She was okay. This was scary but she could handle it for now, couldn't she? She focused her eyes onto the door, she'd see when Zelena came back.

Henry walked into the living room and saw Alice looking a little more frightened than normal.

"Hey, Alice," he approached her. She glanced up at him, her eyes tear stained. "Are you okay?"

Alice nodded. She wasn't allowed not to be. Was she?

"Okaaaaay," Henry didn't believe her but they couldn't push her too far, all that would do was make her even less likely to do things. And it looked to him like she'd decided to come out of her room on her own for once.

"Good job coming out of your room, by the way."

Alice nodded. She wanted to go back into it. Alice reached over and grabbed one of the blankets she could reach without moving. It was soft and it was warm and it was comforting. When she could reach the blankets she'd throw one over herself and hold onto it. Everything here was still so new and still so frightening.

Robin soon joined them and sat across from Alice.

"You came out of your room?" Robin asked, she was proud of her. Alice only came out of the room when Zelena told her to do something else. It was less than a foot away but it was a start. "Good job."

Alice nodded. Maybe this is what Zelena wanted? It didn't make sense. She hadn't told her where to go or what to do. She just told her not to be in her room. She wanted to be in her room, though. She knew better than to argue with a direct order and so sat clutching a blanket hoping Zelena would be back soon enough with better instructions. Was she doing it wrong? She wanted Zelena to come back and tell her what to do but she was also frightened that she'd done it wrong already.

Robin noticed Alice seemed more frightened than usual by the situation.

"What's wrong?"

Alice shook her head. Nothing was wrong. She just wanted to go back into her room. She felt safter there. And she wasn't allowed to say anything.

"It's just me and Henry, we won't be upset if you talk." Alice nodded. She could speak to Robin easier. She didn't look at Henry. She pretended he wasn't there.

"don'tknow," The two words blended together but Robin thought for a moment.

"You don't know what's wrong, is that it?" Robin took a guess. Alice shook her head.

"You don't know what to do?" Robin guessed again. Alice nodded.

"Whatever you want to."

Alice shook her head. She couldn't go against the order Zelena had given her. She'd told her to stay out of her room.

"I promise you, you won't be in trouble. Just do whatver you want to do," Robin was begging Alice. Alice was so scared right now and she was shaking as she clutched the blanket she must have dragged out of the corner with her. "It's okay. What do you want to do?" She could tell Robin what she wanted, that was okay. She was safe to talk to even if she couldn't help her get what she wanted. She glanced at Henry for a minute, she didn't know him well enough yet.

"I'll look away," Henry told her and turned around. He didn't have to see her ask for whatever it was she wanted. Henry knew she wasn't as comfortable around him as she was with Robin.

Alice pointed into the corner.

"You want to go to your room?" Alice nodded. "Go ahead, my mom won't mind."

Alice shook her head violentally. That was the one thing Zelena had told her not to do. That part of the order had been clear.

"Okay, you don't have to. Do you want me to hand you anything you can't reach?" They had quickly learned that Alice didn't mind as much if someone else helped her to get things she couldn't get to. She preferred when Robin did it, she scared her the least. Alice shook her head, she had what she wanted. "Want to play a game?"

Alice nodded. That she could do.

"Okay, want to come with me to get the cards?" Robin knew Alice would probably say no but it didn't hurt to offer so she knew she could come if she wanted to. Alice shook her head. Robin couldn't tell her it was okay to move. "I'll be right back."

Robin returned with a deck of cards and dealt all three of them the cards they needed for the game. The game calmed Alice down and forced her to loosen her grip on the blanket at one point.

Zelena came in as they were still playing. Alice dropped the cards. She knew Zelena was okay with them playing but wasn't sure if she'd done what she was supposed to.

"Hey, that looks fun," Zelena told her. "What'd you do today?"

Alice blinked. Direct question. "Game." Her response came out as a whisper. She knew how to make full sentences but her mother only ever wanted her to answer her questions. The less she spoke, the better.

"You played a game? That's awesome. Good." Zelena had been gone few hours so suggested Alice go to the bathroom. Once Alice was out of the room Robin jumped up from the ground and looked at her mom.

"What exactly did you tell Alice to do while you were gone?"

"To do anything besides sit in her room. Why?"

Robin groaned. No wonder Alice had been so scared most of the day. She couldn't hide and she didn't know what Zelena had wanted her to do. "It didn't go well. She wouldn't move from just outside of it and when she wanted to you'd told her not to so she just sat next to her room all day."

Zelena felt bad, she'd only been trying to help Alice and she may have made it worse. Zelena went to get Alice.

"Hey, you can come out now, let's go back to the living room."

Alice followed Zelena back into the living room, hanging slightly back since she didn't want to get too close to her.

Alice sat down in the floor, grabbing a hold of the blanket again. She found it comforting and she was scared she'd angered Zelena, even though Zelena didn't seem to react the same way mother did to her mistakes.

Zelena thought about it, Alice had done exactly what she'd asked her, but it's not what she had meant for her to do. How could she communicate what she wanted without making Alice think she'd done something wrong? She wanted to hunt down the girl's so called mother and find out every last detail of what she'd done but she had a feeling she'd return to her murderous ways if she ever met the woman.

Zelena sat down in front of Alice. Alice flinched as she did. She'd been getting more used to Zelena but she still scared her when she got close.

"Good job coming out of your room, but you can go in there when you want to."

Alice made a beeline for the corner and curled into herself. Zelena sighed she hadn't meant for Alice to do it right then. She couldn't scold her for it. To Alice, this must have sounded like an order. She wasn't going to force her out of the space she found comfortable. But she was curious what she did all of the time when she sat by herself.

Zelena approached the corner. If she phrased it right, Alice might just talk to her. And if she had Robin sit with her she'd likely talk a bit more.

"Hey," Alice glanced at her and nodded. She acknowledged Zelena was there. "Can we talk?"

Alice nodded. She didn't know why. She'd done what she was told to, hadn't she? Zelena noticed the worry apparant on her face.

"You're not in trouble. You did good, good coming out of your room on your own. That's great, really good." Alice nodded. She just wanted to be left alone. Or play a game with Robin. She'd did what Zelena asked, hadn't she? Mother left her alone mostly when she did that.

Zelena wanted to help Alice. How did she keep from getting bored all day?

"What'd you think about all day?" Zelena asked. Alice blinked. No one had ever asked her what she was thinking. She thought about a lot of things. She didn't have anything else to do. And she was so lonely. She thought about how to get mother to just not be so angry at her all the time, she hadn't been very good at that . And now she thought about how to make sure she didn't anger Zelena, she wasn't very good at that either. But when she wasn't worrying she'd entertain herself with thoughts of what it'd be like to go outside, what different objects would look like or feel like or smell like if they were different. What it'd be like to be able to run around outside and be as loud as she wanted, or as quiet as she wanted. At this point, she'd rather be quiet. It never helped anything when she wasn't. Sometimes she'd think about how nice it'd be to just make herself small enough that she could hide in one of the teacups mother had her clean. Sometimes she wanted to shrink down so mother couldn't see her. It'd make things so much easier, wouldn't it? And sometimes she thought about what it'd feel like to not be so scared to move. She knew how. She'd done it before. But she was always frightened she'd get caught and so it was rare she did it. She'd stopped trying after she met Robin, her catching her reminded her that mother could easily come back from the market earlier than she said she would. She thought about the market mother mentioned a lot. She never explained it but she always told Alice there were a lot of people around. She tried to imagine that but didn't have enough experience with the wordl outside of the tower. "It must get really boring not having anything to do."

Alice shook her head. She could entertain herself well enough and she could sleep whenever her thoughts weren't enough to keep her engaged. Zelena asked the question again.

Alice blinked, she'd gotten lost in her train of thought. She thought about a lot of things. She didn't know how to explain most of them. She knew she thought about the outside. But would that make Zelena angry? She decided it was fine to lie.

"Nothing." Zelena held in a groan. Someone that only moved when told tou had to have a better imagination thean that.

"I'm sure you think of something, please tell me?"

Alice stared at her. She wasn't getting out of this was she? Fine. She'd tell her. Maybe then she could just be left alone for a little while?

"Outside," Alice whispered.

"You think about the outside?" Alice nodded. "What about it?"

Alice didn't know the words for most of the things outside of the tower. Mother had hated when she asked questions and she only needed to know about things inside the tower. But she remebered learning her colors and shapes as a child because it made it easier for mother to tell her what to do.

"Thegreenthingsoft," she ran her words together so she could stop speaking sooner. Zelena only heard part of it the words blurred together so much. Robin had spent enough time around Alice to understand her and be able to wager a guess.

"The green thing?" Robin asked. Alice nodded. "It's soft?" Alice nodded again. Grass! She was talking about the grass. Zelena thought a moment. Alice didn't know what grass was. She hadn't been allowed to ask any questions.

"It's called grass," she told her. Alice's eyes widened, this time in suprise instead of their usua fear. She'd wanted to know what it was since she was little but mother had always told her she wasn't supposed to ask questions then sent her away from her. Alice had stopped asking by the time she was five.

Zelena had a better idea now. One that would hopefully both encourage Alice to move around and start to give her words for the things she didn't understand. She just had to find a way to convince her it was a good idea.