Jean never envisioned she would be close to Alice.
She was Lucien's coworker - abrupt, odd, and slightly unpredictable, Doctor Alice Harvey was not someone Jean saw herself becoming friends with, and yet…
She wound up learning more from Alice than she thought possible. They were the unlikeliest of allies - later friends - after the pathologist arrived in Ballarat. Alice was there to witness the whirlwind of Jean and Lucien's relationship, of the hardships both had to hurdle before landing at that altar at the Colonist's Club. Alice started off strange, aloof, only speaking to Jean if she had to call the house - Jean playing the messenger between Alice and Lucien - and then… Jean's birthday and the incident at the Colonist's Club.
And then… the Orton debacle and Alice's walls crumbled around her. That moment, when it looked dire for Alice and Jean stuck still debating on whether or not to leave for Adelaide, was the moment that things clicked between the two of them. Alice sought out Jean for comfort - a shaking hand seeking warmth she'd never gotten in the past - and Jean desperately wanted to feel needed, and desperately wanted a distraction from her tumultuous feelings between Lucien and her son.
Alice was a breath of fresh air for Jean. She was still abrupt, still odd, and still unpredictable, but Jean enjoyed it now. She delighted in passing on some of the lessons of her mother's to Alice - who'd experienced a heavier hand than that of Catherine Randall. Over lessons in knitting, sewing, a brief stint in cooking (a disaster, but Jean could still remember the laughter shared), some gardening (Alice did better with herbs than flowers), and baking (Jean was still finding flour in hidden crevices of the kitchen), Jean got to know the quiet pathologist. They shared stories of their pasts over knitting needles, Jean learned about sciences over cups and cups of tea, and Alice learned the nuances of the human emotion in the dappled sunlight of the garden.
Over time, through triumph and heartache, Alice Harvey became a staple in the Blake household - a fixed point in Jean's life she could turn to whenever life seemed too much. She could go to Alice for quiet, for comfort, for another science lesson - even if she ended up spending more time in the morgue than she ever thought she would.
Jean wouldn't trade it for the world.
Alice kept her steady when her world tilted on its axis after Lucien's disappearance. She was the one who could cajole a smile from Jean in the weeks - months - afterwards, she was the one who could distract her with any question that came to her mind; Alice could make her laugh with a sarcastic observation of someone in Ballarat, or provide a quiet, steady hand when Jean thought her heart would burst from her chest with the weight of her sorrow.
The lessons Alice taught her were different from those that came before. Alice expanded her kindness - that her actions and words can have the smallest or biggest impact on the quietest person. Alice taught her that sometimes convention needed to be kicked to the curb, and kicked hard - why shouldn't she do what she thought needed to be done? And Alice taught her that sometimes the best course of action after a long day was a glass of wine, a good book, and the quiet companionship of a friend.