Zelena needed to go to the market for a longer time today. She didn't want to leave Alice alone without any kind of supervision. She knew she'd sit in the same spot and not take care of herself. But at the same time she knew taking her with her was risky. Would she be able to handle the amount of people at the market? What if someone bumped into her and she panicked? What if she didn't know what to do? She'd tried having Regina watch her, she'd tried telling her to stay out of her room, she'd tried telling her to do whatever she wanted. All of it had backfired and made the problem worse. Zelena was tempted to go find the girl's so called mother and make her tell Alice every rule she'd ever told her was wrong. Zelena hadn't found a way to tell Alice she was allowed to just be. She knew she was calmer outside. But she was still too scared and she worried the market wouldn't be a god enviorment for Alice right now. She saw Alice sitting and playing with Robin. The former holding a blanket and the latter holding up most of the conversation.

"Okay, I'm going to be gone a while. Alice," Alice paused what she was doing and looked at Zelena. "If you need to while I'm gone you can go to the bathroom and leave it, you can go to your room and leave it , you can go to the kitchen and get food and leave it, you can play with Robin and henry if he's around. Okay, bye."

Zelena hoped she'd listed everything. And Robin was there if she needed anything. Zelena hoped this would work. Alice needed to do things. She'd move around outside but not much.

Alice didn't know what Zelena wanted her to do. She'd asked or told her a bunch of things right as she was walking out the door. She didn't need to use the bathroom but she'd go in there if she wanted her to. Alice glanced at Robin for a second. She'd know if she was doing it wrong. And she'd help, wouldn't she?

Alice got up and walked to the bathroom she didn't need to use. She sat down and played witht the door for a while. She liked doing that. She waited. Zelena had said she didn't have to stay in here but she was still a little confused.

Alice left the bathroom and went into her room. She stayed there for a few minutes then left it and walked into the kitchen. Alice didn't know how to cook but she knew how to grab the sandwhich Zelena had left in her corner for her. She sat down and ate. She finished eating and then went back to where she and Robin had been playing. In the amount of time Alice had taken to do this Robin had sat watching as Alice just followed what hadn't been instructions to a tee. She'd done every single thing on the list of what she could do. And then she sat down and went back to playing the game she had suddenly stopped playing an hour before.

"Okay then," Robin said. It was weird how much Alice cared about what Zelena wanted her to do. "I really think my mom meant you could do it if you wanted not that you had to. But, that works too." Alice blinked. Had she done it wrong?

"Sorry." Alice didn't have a better response.

"No, it's okay. You're allowed to do things. What do you want to do?" They had finished their game.

Alice wanted to go sit and play with the door. She liked how it moved. And it was quiet enough it didn't scare her. She wasn't sure if she was allowed to go do it. Would Robin know? She couldn't tell her what to do but she could help her decide if Zelena would be okay with it.

"Bathroom."

Robin blinked. Hadn't Alice just gone?

"I'm pretty sure you can do that." Alice shook her head.

"Yes. You can. Go ahead."

"Iwanttoplaywiththedoor," Alice rushed the words but was getting more confident around Robin at least. She'd realized Robin wouldn't hurt her and usually would help her and if she asked for things around Robin , she didn't get mad.

"Okay. Go ahead." Robin held in the laugh she had. It was something a bit weird but if Alice was having fun she wasn't going to stop her.

Alice went into the bathroom and played with the door. She remained mesmerized by it until Zelena got home. She wasn't going to move around in front of Zelena without her telling her to directly. So she waited still messing with the door when Zelena came and found her.

"How'd it go?" Zelena asked Robin as she walked in the door.

"She follwowd the list like it was a lot of orders But she did make her own decision to go play in the bathroom afterwards."

Zelena nodded. It was close enough for now. It was better than her sitting in one spot the entire time she was gone. That was the first decision Alice had made without any help. If Alice had a favorite food, Zelena didn't know what it was and so she'd make something she had heard her request when given a she actually liked it.

Zelena went into the bathroom to check on her and saw her playing with the door. This was now a frequent occurance and Zelena had started to wish Alice would sleep in a room that had a door so she could have something fun to do in her room but she didn't mind Alice finding something fun.

"Okay, you did good. Do you want spaghetti for dinner or something else?" Zelena left it a little less structured hoping she'd find out if there was anything else Alice liked but that didn't work.

"Spaghetti."

Alice had actually started to decide that was her favorite but never expressed this. Zelena told Alice when dinner would be ready and gave her a few choices of what to do. Alice chose to go play anoher card game with Robin in the kitchen and they sat and played until dinner was ready. The smallest step made Zelena swell with pride. Alice would be okay. It was just going to take some time.