Later that evening

It was the second time he was in Alice's hospital room that day; and he did not want to make it a habit. He and Delalieu had had a long discussion whether they should have contacted the European embassy right away or to wait and question Alice about the missing info themselves.

They had decided to wait.

Now he was equipped with a sheet similar to a police report or a missing person fill out he had been given by O'lander. He had already taken the leverage to fill in Name, Sex, Eye color, Hair color, together with estimated Height and Weight. (By simply deeming that she could not weigh more than his eighty pound punching bag.) But to his own surprise he had to skip over Age. Alice had not mentioned it to him at any time.
Not that he had spent that much time with her to begin with. But if he had to take a wild guess she was probably ten.

He sat waiting by her bedside, one legged crossed over the other. She had stirred a little when he came in, but hadn't minded him in any other way. By now he had been there for an additional ten minutes and she still hadn't woken up. He had been informed to let her wake up at her own pace; but he had better things to do.

"Alice?", he asked. Leaning forwards as her eyes fluttered a little at the sound of his voice.

"Time to wake up", he said. It was the closest thing he could come to coaxing someone to wake up.

She blinked a little at the light, not as groggily as earlier, but it was clear that she would have slept for a lot longer if she had had the chance. Now she looked irritated over being woken up.

"Good morning", he told her.

"How are you feeling?"

She aimed her eyes at him and her look changed from startled to something he had not seen coming.

It was the look pure disappointment.

She tugged at the oxygen mask.

"Where's… Lu?", she asked in the same soft voice from before. Though the softness was ruined by her frown.

She was obviously referring to the Lieutenant. Was he offended that a little girl preferred a moustached old man before himself? No, not really. But he couldn't deny that it did surprise him that she asked for him in the first place.

"I'm afraid it will just be you and me, Alice. And you better get comfortable, because I have a lot of questions I need answers to. This needs to be completely filled in", he said and flicked the paper for effect.

"And you're the only one with those answers", he said and gestured for her with his pen.

Her glare did not ease up, but she seemed to settle with the situation at hand. She scooted up against her pillow and started stretching her arms; as one does when they wake up.

"So, how are you feeling?", he repeated. He wasn't actually that interested, but they had to warm up with something.

"Not as tired…", she replied.

"And your lungs?"

"Hurts. A lot", she said and made a small cough to demonstrate. Even if he had been proven immune it felt better that he was thankful for the mask.

"Doctor Veens said you'll be performing a CAT-scan first thing tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get some info on their condition", he said.

"What's a… cat scan?", she asked.

"It's like an X-ray."

She cocked her head to the side, a small sparkle of playfulness showed in her eyes.

"Why' they called...", pause for cough,"...cat scans?", she wondered.

He shrugged.

"It stands for something."

Then, quickly before she could start asking if there were dog scans as well, he asked:"How old are you?"

She gave a small huff, but did not fuss.

"Eleven", she said. Then he hadn't been too far off.

"And your birthday?", he asked while filling in the blank spaces.

"Twenty first… July…"

"Good. Now, what sector are you from?", he asked. This was where they had been intrupted last time.

She blinked at him, like before. He did not like it.

"Is that like… a province?", she asked.

"No, a sector is about the size of a city. We're in sector 45 right now. Do you know what number your sector has?", he urged.

She shook her head.

"I don't know…", she said, clearly troubled.

"Are you sure? This is really important", he told her.

"Yes", she said.

"But it's a sector in Sweden, yes?"

She nodded.

"I'm from Sweden", she assured.

He cursed in his head. So far he only had her birthday.

"How about your ID number, do you know it?", he asked referring to the cards all legal citizens were equipped with. She hadn't had one when she came there, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

She shook her head, but then added.

"It's mamma who knows it…"

His head whipped up.

"Your mother?", he asked.

Alice gave him a startled little nod.

Why hadn't he thought of that before? a quiet voice asked in his head.

"What's her name?", he asked.

"Her name!", he snapped when she took too long answering. She had just sat there staring at him.

"I…", she went, slightly put off by his mood. She took a moment to gather her thoughts.

"I don't know…", she mumbled.

A pause.

"What?"

He felt like snapping his pen in half. Too bad the ink would ruin his slacks.

"You don't know your own mother's name?!"

"I always… say Mamma to her…", Alice tried reasoning, but she didn't even seem to believe it herself.

"That's no excuse…!", he told her. Then he remembered something.

"What about your father?", he said.

The look she gave him made him reconsider if it was worth breaking the pen.

Another pause. Another moment for Alice to think. Her eyes blinked rapidly, her eyes darting across the duvet as she frantically searched her memory. He knew the answer before she opened her mouth.

"I don't remember…", she said with her voice breaking. Her gray eyes widened in horror of her own violation. And he realized too late that she was starting to cry.

"I don't remember…", she sniffed.

He could hear how her esophagus was starting to clog up with tears. Small round tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped from her chin to land on the duvet. Causing small dark dots to pop up here and there.

"Jag vill ha min mamma och pappa…!", she whimpered. Her small voice climbing in so many octaves that he almost cringed at the pain in his ears. Luckily he didn't; because that would be insensitive. The words had been Swedish, but it didn't require a translator to understand what she meant.

"Hey now...!", he said and snapped his finger in front of her face to distract her from her misery.

She looked up in confusion, more tears dripping with a share of startled blinking.

"Stop crying", he ordered. He got a handkerchief from his pocket, took her right hand and pushed the folded white square into it. Giving it a firm squeeze to make sure she held onto it.

"Dry yourself up. Then, when you've calmed down, you can at least give me a description of you parents."

Her mouth became a line and she sniffed, but seemed to collect herself. But she couldn't help but to hiccup at his scowl.

"We do have their last names", he continued, his voice softer. He readjusted his seat after the small ordeal and lifted his pen.

"But it won't hurt to add a description. It probably won't take very long considering they're looking for you just as hard."

Alice gave him an eager nod and lifted the handkerchief to her eyes. He really hoped it was the case; what else were they supposed to do with her when she got healthy again?

He flipped over the paper and wrote: parents

"Well then: What does you mother look like?"

He had to wait for Alice to dry her eyes and take a few breaths with the oxygen mask, but he managed to get it out of her.

Mother: Brown hair, brown/green eyes, below 6ft, around 40, technician.

Father: Dirty blond, blue eyes, around 6ft, also around 40, teacher.

Alice was still sniffing by the end of that conversation. If Delalieu had been there he probably would have done a better job, but Warner did not have time, or the mindset, to comfort crying children.

"Thank you very much, Alice", he said and nodded at his neat handwriting. This was sure to bring some sort of progress. And something to report to the higher ups.

"One last question before we're done though", he said as Alice started scooting down, as if ready to go back to sleep.

"Hmm?", she hummed.

"How did you come to sector 45, if you're from Sweden?"

She blinked.

"Didn't I say that... before?", she wondered.

He was actually caught off guard for a moment. Had she really? But when he thought back he shook his head.

"No, you were too tired", he told her.

She suddenly looked very discouraged. It did not contribute to the commander's mood.

"Well?", he asked.

For a moment it looked like as if she was going to start crying again.

"I don't… I don't know… I don't remember"

A pen did die that day.

A/N

Hi there!
Guess who's had a writer's block? ME! :D

You know that "long discussion" mentioned at the start? Yeah, that's what I had planned from the start, but it was soooo hard to write. So one week ago I was like "You know what? Let's start over!" and as soon as I changed to Warner and Alice the words just came to me. Thank my best friend for helping me with ideas!

Summer's coming up, so the story will hopefully progress a little faster. When I started this I thought I'd moved on to the fun stuff by chapter fifteen. Guess I was wrong :| So if you're bored that nothing is happening, just imagine how frustrated I am.

There will be Warner researching Juliette. (Shout-out to that one review asking about it!)

BTW Please leave reviews if you like this story, it helps with motiviation :)

Thanks for reading!