Alice ran through the rules she'd managed to break since moving in with Robin and Zelena. It bothered her but she didn't know how to explain what was wrong. She kept trying to follow the rules she knew but Zelena told her to do things that went against those. She'd done every single thing that mother would have been beyond angry about and then she'd felt so awful about it. And she'd apologized. But eventually she would do them anyway and cry herself to sleep begging the world to make sense again. And she didn't know what Zelena really wanted. None of it had been what she'd expected. None of her reactions made sense to Alice and Alice didn't know what to do. She'd learned to ask for things but that was the most she'd do on her own. She'd ask Luna if she was closer but still preferred Zelena. And she'd listen to Robin occasionally.

Alice had begun to worry more about how Zelena would react to her doing anything wrong. She kept telling her she wouldn't hurt her but Alice didn't know how long that would last. And she didn't know what Zelena expected of her. Every rule mother had, Zelena didn't punish her for breaking. Alice had tried a lot to see if Zelena had any rules that would matter enough. Did Zelena care what she did at all? Mother had made it clear she didn't want or care about Alice but she'd never managed to ignore her compleltly. She did care what Alice was doing enough to hurt her for it. Alice just wanted things to make sense again. She just wanted to know what it'd take to anger Zelena. She'd try to avoid doing it once she knew. But she needed to know.

Alice was sitting at the table drawing when Zelena glanced over her shoulder. "That looks pretty. Good job drawing."

Alice flinched but nodded at Zelena, acknowledging that she heard her and was listening. Alice saw a few dishes in the sink and some on the counter and she didn't like them being there. Things were supposed to stay clean. It was Alice's job to make sure they did.

"Canicleanthekitchen?" Luna nodded but Alice stared at Zelena. If she was around she wanted her permission too. Zelena wished Alice would stop relying on anyone for permission but knew she needed to encourage any amount of indepedance Alice showed.

"It looks like Luna said you can." Alice took that as Zelena saying she could and stood up, slowly walking by Zelena who had already sat down to eat her breakfast.

Alice started washing the dishes. When she was almost finished her arm brushed against one of the plates on the counter sending it plummetting towards it's early demise. Alice flinched and immediatly sat down next to the now shattered plate. "Sorrysorrysorry." Alice's apologies masked both her fear of pain and her desire to know Zelena actually cared when she did something bad. She was supposed to hurt her. And she wouldn't. Why wouldn't she?

"Alice, it's okay. Plates break sometimes."

Zelena got up and swept the shattered glass into a dustpan and threw it away. "See? No big deal."

Alice nodded and stood back up. It was okay. It wasn't a big deal. Nothing she did here mattered. Zelena was never going to care what she did. Alice didn't understand. Mother had told her she was a pain to have around but she had had to keep her. Zelena didn't have to so why wasn't she ever punishing her? At this point Alice wanted to hear Zelena yell. Would she if she broke a plate on purpose?

Alice stood back up and stared at Zelena, waiting for her to look at her again. She pushed another plate off the counter.

Zelena watched as Alice stood up and bumped into another plate. Alice sat down again but stared at Zelena. Was she angry? She'd done it on purpose that time.

Zelena saw Alice staring at her, her eyes wide but she hadn't completly curled into herself. That was better than her burrying her face and panicking. "Good."

Alice didn't know what Zelena thought was good. Alice was frustrated. Zelena hadn't gotten angry at an accident or when she did it on purpose. She just wanted her to yell or insult her or hit her. That made sense. What did she have to do that Zelena would even care about?

"CanIgotomyroom?" Alice was desperate for Zelena to hurt her or yell. Nothing was happening so she wanted to go hide in her room. Luna nodded and Alice listened to her, hoping that Zelena would notice she wasn't asking her. But Zelena ignored what Alice thought was bad.

A few hours later, after they'd eaten lunch Alice had gotten up to clean and pushed another plate off the counter. This time she tried to make it look more intentional. Alice immeidatly apologized for it. She wanted Zelena to yell but she didn't want to anger her any more than she had to.

"Alice, it's okay." Zelena told her then cleaned up the pieces. Alice had stared at her and knocked another one off. Zelena cleaned the pieces again. Alice sat down and apologized, silently begging Zelena to understand that it wasn't an accident but she couldn't get her to understand. "It's okay, Alice. You're not in trouble."

Alice was even more frustrated now. Mother wouldn't have let the first plate go. Let alone the next few. Alice just needed Zelena to yell even a little. Why didn't she care what she was doing? And Alice had no idea what Zelena expected of her. She hadn't even tried to give her any rules. She'd only told her it was okay to break the rules she knew. And it had been fine when there had still been rules. But now Alice had slowly broken every rule mother hd ever had, and Zelena had told her to break them. Alice had thought she was trying to make her break rules so she'd have a reason to punish her but that didnt seem to beanywhere close to what was happening. She'd waited for Zelena to be angry but she wouldn't. And Alice wasn't used to not having any rules.

Dinner rolled around and Alice had picked up a plate from the drainer while Zelena was cooking and set it on the counter and knocked it on the ground.

Zelena sighed. She couldn't show any kind of anger. She couldn't scold Alice. It'd destroy the small amount of confidence she was displaying, which Zelena thought was a bloody miracle. She was willing to sacrafice a few plates if it showed Alice she was safe but they still needed plates. And if this continued for much longer they wouldn't have any. Zelena briefly wished this realm had paper plates.

It had been a week and Alice's war on the dishes had only escalated. Zelena had almost gone back to Storybrooke to get some paper plates but realized that wouldn't complelty solve the problem. Why was Alice suddenly hellbent on breaking every dish she could get her hands on?

It had been fine when it was a few dishes but once it had become a few dishes a day it'd become a problem. Alice would wait until Zelena could see her and then she'd knock a dish off of the counter. And Zelena had no idea why. But she had to have some reason for it. Did Alice like the sound it made? Or was she trying to tell her something? Zelena's patience was growing thin. The suddenly frequent sound of shattering dishes had started to exhaust her. She just wanted Alice to tell her what was wrong. Zelena sighed as she heard another plate meet the floor and reminded herself that at least Alice was moving without asking first. Zelena didn't understand what Alice was trying to tell her.

Alice was more frustrated then she'd started. She'd tried breaking the plates in the most obvious ways possible and Zelena still acted like nothing had happened. She didn't even say anything about it sometimes! Did Zelena not care about what she was doing? Should she go home? Alice didn't know how to get home and knew if mother took her back in she'd beat her for running away and for breaking every rule and for going outside. Alice didn't want to deal with that level of pain but she did want Zelena to at least yell. Or tell her why she was keeping her, she didn't have to!

Zelena sighed. If Alice didn't stop breaking plates she was going to have to go get more which would involve leaving Alice at home, possibly alone. Which Zelena didn't trust much at all.

Alice pushed yet another dish onto the ground. Zelena had stopped reacting to it. She didn't know why Alice had suddenly decided every plate she could reach needed to be shattered into dozens of pieces but it was slowly eating at Zelena's patience. The sound had quickly gone from something that wouldn't bother her to something that she wanted to scream every time she heard but screaming would only destroy the amount of progress Alice had made. And she had been doing so well, up until she'd decided to break bloody near everything in the kitchen.

Zelena sighed as yet another innocent plate met its demise. She cleaned it up and silently begged for this sudden destructive phase to stop. Alice went about her day for a while.

"CanIcleanthekitchen?" Alice was sitting and calmly drawing, which was a much needed reprieve from her tiny outburst of destruction. Alice saw Zelena enter the kitchen and decided she needed her to be angry with her still.

Zelena sighed. Telling Alice no would only teach her that asking for things was still wrong and that was definitley not something Zelena could do right now. Alice clearly didn't have the words for something she was trying to tell her. But if she said yes then a few more plates would likely end up in the garbage. Zelena decided Alice's ability to get what she needed far outweighed the safety of a few dishes and told Alice she could.

Alice stared at Zelena. She's broken so many plates and Zelena mostly ignored it. Or told her it was okay. How was this okay? Why didn't Zelena have any rules?

Alice reached for one of the glasses that had so far managed to escape her wrath and sent it plummeting to the ground.

Zelena sighed. The sound of shattering glass had quickly become a daily occurance. Zelena bit her tongue, she was getting tired of having to clean up broken glass.

Alice apologized and grabbed the broom to sweep it up.

"Okay, that's good. Thank-you for cleaning it up," Zelena acknowledged Alice's movement and then watched as Alice threw another glass onto the ground then cleaned that one too. Zelena sighed. There was only so much she could do. She didn't want this but she couldn't think of what Alice might be upset with. It honestly could be anything from not liking the color dishes Zelena had to being terrafied of something Zelena would have no way of knowing about.

Alice just wanted Zelena to yell. She wouldn't. Alice gave up and asked if she could go to bed.

"Yes, that's fine."

Zelena checked the floor to make sure there wasn't any remnants of glass.

The next morning Alice woke up and pet Luna. "CanIgotothebathroom?"

Alice listened to Luna telling her she could and continued to ask the dog for permission.

Alice was scared but she was ready to try as hard as she could to anger Zelena.

"Good morning, Alice."

"CanIhelpyoucook?" Zelena sighed. A few more dishes were going to meet their demise whether Zelena wanted them to or not.

"Yeah. What are we making?" Zelena joked, begging for this to mean that Alice was over breaking everything she could reach in the kitchen.

Alice shook her head. She didn't know. How was she supposed to answer Zelena? Alice started to pull her legs up to her chest, ready for Zelena to yell or hurt her.

"You don't have to answer." Alice blinked. Did Zelena not have any rule Alice could break?

As they were cooking Alice knocked a dish off the counter.

Zelena sighed. They were starting to run out of plates. But yelling would only make it worse.

"Are you trying to tell me something?"

Alice nodded. Yes! She was supposed to yell. Why didn't Zelena get it?

"Ok, do you want to tell me?"

Alice shook her head. "That's okay, you don't have to." Zelena really wanted an answer but she wasn't going to force Alice to tell her. It would have been great if Alice's sudden ability to be a little more defiant hadn't come with a side of plate massacre. Alice knocked another plate down. Why didn't that anger Zelena? She was refusing to answer her!

Henry and Ella walked up to Zelena's porch. "But yeah basically my aunt took in this girl whose mother was awful. She thinks she has to ask to do anything. She spends most of her time hiding in the corner of the living room. She's kinda obsessed with the bathroom door for some reason. And pretty sure if you look at her wrong she gets super frightened. She doesn't talk a lot, though. And if she ask you anything just you have to respond. My aunts trying to get her out of the habit of thinking it's not okay to talk to anyone. And no matter what, don't tell her no. Although she hasn't really done anything wrong."

Henry quickly learned he'd spoken far too soon.

"Okay, I'm not going to force you. Henry and Ella are coming over for breakfast they should be here soon." Just then Henry and Ella walked into the kitchen, right as Alice was tossing another glass onto the floor.

"We're here now."

Alice glanced over towards Henry and Ella. Alice sat down and pulled her legs up to her chest. "Sorrysorrysorry."

"Alice, it's okay. It's just Henry and his wife, Ella. They're not going to hurt you. Promise."

Alice nodded. Was Zelena sure? Alice needed someone to make some kind of rule and she couldn't get it from Zelena. Alice stood up and stared at Ella. reached over and knocked another few plates off the counter. "Sorry." Alice tried to explain that this was on purpose. Alice didn't say anything. She was too scared to break too many rules at once. Zelena wasn't getting it. She didn't know how else to tell her what she wanted. Why wouldn't Zelena just yell? Why weren't there any rules?

Zelena sighed, overly used to this by now. She started to clean up the mess. That was wrong! "Idothat." Alice's voice was a whisper but Zelene alet Alice finish cleaning.

Alice was frustrated and now she was even more frightened. There weren't any rules and no one seemed to care what she did. What would set Zelena off? Alice was frightened, if there weren't any rules she couldn't avoid being hurt. She knew that breaking things always angered mother and Zelena hadn't said anything about that! She just wanted to know what it'd take to anger Zelena. If she knew she could avoid it but if she didn't she couldn't.

"CanIgotomyroom?"

"Yes, that's fine. Come back when you're ready to eat, please?"

Alice nooded and retreated to her room.

Zelena sat down and rubbed her temples. "If you use a plate, put it away. Alice has declared a war on every dish in this house and she is winning. And I don't know what she's trying to prove. I know she's trying to tell me something but I don't know what it is. I asked her and she wouldn't tell me. Which I mean, she's finally gotten enough confidence to tell me no and completly ignore me which is better than her getting stuck in the middle of the road because I asked her to wait for me if she got lost but bloody hell am I tired of the sound of things breaking."

"Aunt Z, you sound exhausted."

"Like I said. Holy war on the bloody dishes. And I really don't want to tell her no."

"Rest a minute, I'll clean the kitchen."

"Could you?" Zelena sighed and laid her head on table. Which only lasted a few minutes. She was exhausted but couldn't take a break for long.

Alice returned to the kitchen when Henry was cleaning. That was wrong! She was supposed to do that! No! Zelena was going to be angry. Wait. Yes. Finally!

Alice glanced over at Zelena and apologized.

"You already apologized for whatever you broke last, it's fine." Zelena didn't love telling Alice it was fine to break things but she wasn't sure what else to do. She couldn't think of how to see what Alice was telling her she needed. This was entirely Alice's "mother's" fault, Zelena was sure.

Alice blinked. Still nothing? Fine! Alice looked at the drainer. She walked over to it and saw all the dishes Henry hadn't put away yet. Alice picked one up and tossed it to the floor. It shattered and Zelena didn't say anything. She picked up another and threw it to the ground. Nothing. Alice repeated this over and over again.

"Alice, you need to stop," Henry told her. He was calm. That wasn't right! Zelena wouldn't yell. No matter what she did. Alice was still scared. She knew the angrier she made her the worse it would be but she couldn't take it any more. Alice kept grabbing dishes and causing them to shatter. She could apologize later. She could try to handle whatever punishment Zelena would have for her. She hoped it wouldn't hurt too much.

"Alice, seriously you need to stop."

Zelena watched as the normally calm and silent Alice proceeded through a suprisngly violent outburst. She thought a moment. When had Alice ever listened to Henry?

"Alice, honey. I know you're frustrated. And you probably don't have the words for why. And maybe you're a little scared but you need to stop throwing things. Can you please do that? Can you please stop throwing things?"

Alice stared at her. That wasn't right! Why didn't Zelena ever yell? She had to! That made sense!

Alice kept throwing things as Zelena tried to calm her down, gently speaking to her. Asking her if she'd stop. Zelena sighed. This was not going well. Alice kept throwing very breakable things at the floor. This was the same girl who refused to even ask to go to the bathroom half the time. What was going on?

Alice threw another dish. She glanced over and there was none left in the drainer. She reached over and grabbed the spoon from the stove and tossed it down. It didn't break. Alice tried to pick up the pan.

Okay, that wasn't safe. Zelena panicked, not sure if Alice knew that that was dangerous. "Alice, no."

Alice stared at her. Why wasn't she yelling? Alice reached for the pot again. Zelena watched with horror as Alice tried to pick up a pot filled with boiling water. "Alice, No! Stop it!" Zelena sighed. She'd just yelled at Alice who stopped what she was doing immeidiatly. She'd been trying to protect her but now she had to find a way to explain to Alice that she wouldn't hurt her. She hoped she hadn't destroyed all of Alice's confidence.

Alice sat down. That's all she'd wanted. She'd just wanted Zelena to yell. Alice pulled her knees up to her chest. She was scared now. What would Zelena do? How badly would it hurt?

Zelena came and sat down next to her, watching as she the fear showed in her mannerisms. "I'm sorry I yelled. I just didn't want you to get hurt."

Why didn't Zelena have any rules? Alice hugged her legs tighter to her chest. There was nothing left that she could break. She could send the pot onto the ground but she didn't think Zelena would ever stop punishing her for that. Alice started to shake. She'd gone too far. She'd just wantd Zelena to yell. But now she was going to be even more angry than mother had ever been.

"Sorrysorrysorry." Alice tried to hug her legs tighter to her chest, but couldn't. She was silently begging Zelena not to hurt her. Alice didn't think actually asking her would help any.

"I'm sorry I yelled. I shouldn't have yelled at you. I know you're trying to tell me something. It's my fault I don't understand, that's not on you and I shouldn't have yelled at you."

"Badthing."

"Yes, yelling is a bad thing."

No! Why didn't Zelena understand her? Alice shook her head. She'd done something wrong and now Zelena was going to hurt her and Alice's breathing sped up more. "Badthing."

"I know. Yelling is a bad thing."

"Badthing."

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry I yelled. That was wrong. I was just trying to make sure you didn't get hurt." Alice shook her head. Zelena almost understood. If she hadn't stopped Zelena would have hurt her more. That's how it worked. She had to listen or she'd hurt her.

Alice was scared and she was blaming herself. Zelena watched as Alice sat hugging her knees. Zelena was sure she might be crying.

"Alice, you're not in trouble if that's what's bothering you."

Zelena didn't understand! Alice lifted her head up and threw one of her blankets. It was folded and made the slightest of thuds. Zelena sighed.

"Alice, come on" Henry spoke up from where he'd been sitting trying to avoid stepping in the sea of glass Alice had created. "You can use your words."

Alice burried her face back into her knees. "Idon'tknowwhattodo. IthurtsifIdon't."

"No, I'm not going to hurt you. No matter what you do."

"Therearen' 'truleshowdoIknowwhenyou'regoingtohurtmeandwhenyouwon't?"

Zelena sighed. She couldn't always understand what Alice wss saying.

"Okay, Alice. I can't understand you. I'm going to go get Robin. I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay." Alice held in a groan. She'd made Zelena too angry. It was going to hurt a lot. She'd never do whatever Zelena said was the problem again, though. Alice sighed then flinched at the sound her voice made. She had never managed to avoid mother's punishments. She just couldn't stay still and quiet all the time. And she'd tried so hard but sometimes mother would tell her to do things she didn't actually want her to do. Or she'd hesitate a second too long. Alice let her silent tears fall, terrafied about when Zelena came back.

Zelena and Robin came into the kitchen. "Hey, Alice, can you tell Robin what's wrong?"

"Therearen'trules. Idon'tknowwhattodo." Alice hated telling Zelena how she felt but she'd already angered her enough for one day.

"Alice says there aren't any rules and she doesn't know what to do."

"Whatever you want to, I won't get mad."

Zelena still didn't get it! She was supposed to be mad. Alice picked up another blanket.

"Alice, you don't have to throw that. We can talk about what's wrong." Alice set the blanket back down. She didn't want to talk but hoped she could explain.

"Idon' .Soiknowwhattothinkaboutwhenbeingpunished."

"Okay, none of us are ever going to hurt you, but I know that's confusing for you right now. We can find some rules. Mom, Alice needs rules."

"Okay, don't break the plates. Be back by dark. That enough rules?"

Alice didn't think that was enough but could live with it. Alice didn't want to ask Zelena how she would punish her. But she knew she'd done something wrong. She stood up and turned around to face the nearest wall.

"What? What are you doing?"

" .Sorry."

Zelena sighed. She almost wished she knew how to find Alice's so called mother. She deserved to feel every ounce of fear she'd forced Alice to have.

"Absolutley not. I don't hurt children," Zelena let the fact her once sworn enemy was a teenage girl remain out of the conversation. "I'm not going to hurt you. No matter what you do."

Alice didn't understand. She'd broken things and ignored what Zelena asked her to do. "youneedtocare."

Zelena saw red. Alice thought that was what it meant to care? "I do care. I can't show it that way. We'll work on it okay? You can help me clean up this mess then we can play a game. Okay?"

Alice agreed and hoped she wouldn't anger Zelena. She wasn't going to hurt her. Alice hoped that would last.

They finished cleaning up the glass then Ella, Henry, and Robin joined them for a midday game night.