Parking lot of a seedy motel
"What's your problem," a drunken 15 year old Alice grumbles out. "I thought…" she pauses a few seconds, this time with a slight sobbing hiccup. "I thought he wasn't into that kind of thing."
"No, honey," Judy says, despite the fact that she can sense Alice's half hearted objections at Ed Machine's proposal to look after her. "He isn't the same Ed you remembered when he was the CEO of Destroido. This time everything is different."
"Then why couldn't they let me keep my mom," Alice argued, back. She was loud and clearly upset. Fear and anger were evident in her voice. "Why couldn't they just let me keep my mom instead? Why couldn't they take my step-dad, WHY DID THEY LEAVE ME HERE WITH THAT MONSTER!"
Brad couldn't be bothered to answer her question.
He refused to lie to Alice when neither of them had reached any educated conclusions that would solve the reasons behind losing her mother the second time.
"Ed knows people," Brad says, dismissively. "He knows enough to keep you out of harm's way which is why he employed us to find you."
"You were the one who confided in him enough to let him know you were in danger." Judy says, in a soft, but very stern tone.
Alice looks back at Judy. Judy stares back, waiting patiently. Finally, she breaks the silence once again. "I remembered his phone number," Alice admits. "Ed didn't know it was me at first because I couldn't stop crying over the phone."
"How long did it take you before you called an adult?" Brad asks.
"Probably a few weeks after I ran away from home…"
"Where were you?"
"Sometimes I got really scared sleeping in those graveyards at night and then suddenly I had a thought. I remembered him. Machine, Ed Machine and it got me thinking maybe he still might remember me."
"Then why did you call him if you didn't believe he wouldn't come looking for you?" Brad urges quietly.
"I thought he was lying." Alice says, and it's all she can manage to say before Brad interrupts.
"He practically lost his mind when he found out what happened." Brad says, and his wife hums out in agreement.
"He's worried about you." Judy gently exclaims, giving Alice a pleasant smile and awaiting her response. "His friends Ricky and Cassidy worry too."
Judy doesn't remember too many details about Alice's upbringing during Nibiru's timeline. All she did know Alice was a teenage runaway with a mysterious past who Destroido taken in for the time being while Mr. E was solving the puzzle of the planispheric disk.
"He's worried about me?" Alice says, with a tinge of desperation. Not wanting to sound too eager. Despite it being the one thought foremost in her mind.
"Yes," Judy replies. "And he has a place prepared for you."
"But we don't really know each other enough." Alice murmurs. She doesn't see any point in lying.
"Wasn't it enough for you to seek out his help?" Brad points out.
"I didn't know who else I could talk to." Alice told Brad, blinking back tears. Her own heart gave a painful wrench reflecting back on those months spent in isolation living under her step-father's roof.
Alice would remember her father flexing the fingers of his right hand before he closed them forming a fist. The last beating that occurred before she fled from her childhood home.
When she barely could register the punching that deliberately knocked the wind out of her lungs. Before she was finally able to catch a breath of air he would strike her again with the back of his hand.
And Brad wondered.
Alice felt it, her head was suddenly spinning all at once. She remembered the taste of copper after biting the inside of her cheek. When she was forced to let her mouth hang open to let the blood drain out of her mouth.
She choked out again.
"Alice," Brad would repeat. "Alice, are you okay?" he would demand this, knowing it couldn't possibly be a good thing.
In retrospect, Alice electing to drink a bottom shelf liquor wasn't the best way to clear out the memories. Feeling a fresh wave of tears coming on she suddenly grew weak in the knees. She sank to the ground when the nausea finally overtaken her.
Alcohol related blackouts were conflicting with the precious memories she had left of her mother.
"Mama…"
Alice is new to remembering the timelines when she only remembered Ed Machine when he was working for Destroido. Even if the cosmos are unforgiving to human suffering doesn't mean there isn't any kindness left in the world.