After the incident in the market Zelena had started to worry. The people in the enchaanted forrest weren't exactly all that understanding. And Alice couldn't be left alone for more than a few hours. She'd panic and hole up in the nearest corner and just Zelena was scared for her safety. She didn't undestand that she was allowed to do whatever she wanted. She'd gotten braver in one way but it hadn't actually solved the problem the way Zelena had thought it would.
She had slowly gotten better at exploring. Something about being outside made Alice more confident. This hadn't worked at the market since Zelena had given Alice directions that turned out to be suprisingly dangerous.
Alice had finished eating her food and really wanted to go outside.
"CanIgooutside?" Zelena told Alice she could and sent her and Robin both outside to play. As they were leaving Regina was entering the house.
"Hi, Aunt Regina." Alice flinched as she walked by her but continued and walked over to the nearest tree and then immeidatly sat down. She just wanted to be out here. She didn't really have anything specific she wanted to do. And now she didn't want to go back inside. Regina scared her.
Robin quickly caught up with Alice. "It's just Aunt Regina. She's not scary."
Alice shook her head. She was scary. And she didn't like being around her. "Canweplayagame?" Alice asked Robin. Robin had guessed Alice would want this evenually and went ahead ad borught the cards out. She dealt them both in and they played.
"So, how are you and Henry?"
"We're good. He and Ella are getting really serious."
"That's great."
"How are you? How's Robin? How's Alice doing?"
Zelena groaned. "Robin and I are fine. But Alice is just so scared. She sat down in the middle of the road the other day and woldn't move when someone else asked her to. I need a better system. If she can't see me she won't do things and I'm not always around. And I still don't know how she got seperated from Robin."
"When was she near the road?"
"Oh she ask for things now, it's great, really. But I don't want to tell her no and scared her out of doing it. So I agreed to let her come with me the last time I went to the market. Someone yelled at her and she completly shut down again."
Zelena was venting. This was difficult and she was frustrated with the impossible situation but Regina hadn't been around enough to be fully caught up.
"Again?"
"yeah a few weeks ago she just got up, ran down the hall, and then sat down and I couldn't even talk to her. She was so scared she stopped responding to things. Found out she wanted to see me angry. I didn't get angry because she wasn't doing anything wrong. I mean I have some choice words for the woman that dared call herself a mother but I hold that in and deal with it when Alice is asleep. She's already scared of just about everything don't need to add to it."
Regina remebered that back in the land without magic sometimes dogs could do jobs for people. "What if you got her a dog?"
"What?" Zelena laughed a little. In what world was getting a dog for someone that couldn't move on her own going to solve that problem?
"Back in the land without magic, some people use dogs to do things for them. What if you taught a dog to tell her she could do things? And taught Alice that asking the dog was the same as asking you?"
Zelena thought for a moment. It could work. If she trained, or really had someone else train, a dog o nod every time Alice started a sentence with "can i" she wouldn't wind up stuck in the road. And a dog would be able to let her pet them just as much as her toy rabbit. The dog would need to be a decent size. But not too big
"At this point, I'll try anything. And tell Tianna congratulations on winning that rebellion of hers."
Zelena sighed. Guess we're gettting a dog.
It took a few weeks to find a dog and in the meantime Zelena was working on getting Alice to ask Robin instead of her. It hadn't been going so well. When they were outside Alice's guard fell a little but the minute they were inside she went back to thinking only Zelena had auhtority over her.
And then one day she and Robin were outside playing and Alice really needed the bathroom.
"CanIgotothebathroom?" Robin told her she could and hoped that she didn't want to wait for Zelena who was currently off looking for a dog.
Alice got up and went to the bathroom, for once ignoring Zelena's lack of presence and then sat in the bathroom until Robin came and found her.
"Are you done?"
Alice nodded. "Okay." Robin was about to walk away when Alice suprised her. Outdoors was one thing but usuallly if Alice asked for something and had to go inside she'd still wait for Zelena to confirm what Robin said. "Cangotomyroom?"
Robin hid her shock and told Alice to go ahead. Yes! Finally! She'd take Robin's word as well as Zelena's! This was great!
Robin composed herself and waited for Zelena to return. When she finally did she walked in with a dog. The dog was alrady house trained and knew the baasic commands. All that was left was to teach the dog how to help Alice.
