"Carlisle!" She shouts into the tent "You here?"

"Yes, um... excuse me Miss, but do I now you?"

I walk in after her, and Carlisle raises his eyebrows at me.

"Is she a friend of yours Jasper?"

"Well, yes, I suppose."

"What do you know her from?"

"We met in the dinner today."

"Hello Carlisle, how are you doing?" Alice asks.

"Fine, and you?"

"Wonderful. I'm Alice."

"And, I'm Carlisle. But apparently you already knew that."

"Yes, I did."

"So... uh... what can I do for you?" He stutters.

"Well, I was looking for a place to stay tonight. I was wondering if I would stay with Alyssa and Samantha?"

"Oh, are you their mother?"

"Sure. Let's put that on the paperwork."

"Excuse me Miss, I was under the impression that their mother was dead?" I ask.

"She is, but if I'm not related to them, I can't be in the same tent with them, right?"

"Yes, that is protocol for minors under protection of the army."

"Which means I would be put with Rosalie?"

"Yes, but, how do you know her?"

"And I really don't want to trouble her, especially with how crammed it is in there already, you know, with them having to stay in the mess tent and all. We can talk to the girls first if you want, see if they are okay with it."

"Uh..." Carlisle glances around, looking confused. "Jasper?"

I shrug and gesture back at him.

"Your choice, not mine."

He bites his lip and looks Alice up and down. With her small stature and slightly sickly disposition, she didn't exactly look like the type of person to go around hurting children.

"I guess that if the girls are okay with it..." He trails off.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you Carlisle!" She squeals, throwing her arms around him.

"Uh... yes. Your welcome." He says, stiffening up.

"Come on Jasper, why don't you introduce me to the girls?"

"Sure thing." I smile.

Like everything else that had happened in the past hour, the introductions were a bit... unconventional. It seemed more like Alice already knew them, but then again, it seemed like she had been planning this day for years.

"Hello, my name is Alice, pleased to meet you Alyssa. Hey Samantha, you're planning to grow out your hair after this, right? It would be so pretty long, I could show your sister how to braid it real pretty. There's this thing one of the nurses used to do with her hair all the time, it was so pretty, I think it would work well in your hair, it has a bit of a wave to it, doesn't it? Yes, that would be cute on you."

The girls sit and stare at her as she picks up the hair ribbons off the cot and holds them against Samantha's hair.

"And this color is so pretty against your dark hair. Too bad it's too short to tie back now. Don't worry though, it'll grow back."

"Um, excuse me... who are you Ma'am?" Alyssa asks.

"Alice, like I said."

"Yes, well, do we know you?"

"I don't think so. You might though. What side of the island did you live on?"

"South tip."

"Hmm... I think I lived on the South-East part. I'm not sure though. Does the name mean anything to you?"

"Yes, there was a in our church. He's the one who's daughter went mad, poor man."

"I'm not mad. He killed my mother and I tried to tell people about it so he got rid of me." She says coolly.

Alyssa's face fell.

"Oh, uh, you're, uhm... you're her?"

"Yeah. I've spent the past two years of my life getting electro-shock therapy because he didn't want to deal with me."

"Mister Brandon?"

"Yeah."

"Your Mary Alice?"

"Yeah."

"That can't be right."

"I'm pretty sure it is." She shrugged.

She leaned over and started straightening up some stuff I had left on the floor next to my old cot earlier today.

"I'll take that." I mutter, grabbing the pack from her and swinging it onto my shoulder.

"Wait, this really can't be right. He said you could hardly even talk. That you thought you were a witch. That you mumbled gibberish. That you were insane."

"Well... I'm not." She shrugs, forcing a bit of a smile.

"I'm sorry ma'am. He just seemed so... honest."

"Yeah, well, he isn't."

"I'm sorry." She mumbles, nervously shifting her feet.

"It's fine. Really." Alice reassures.

"I'm, uh, I, eh..."

"Really," She turns around, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine sweetie. I've gotten much worse."

"Oh... sorry." Alyssa whispers.

She hugs her and drops to the floor before she begins to fish around under the cot, moving around my trunk and packs and a box of letters from Maria.

"Um... I'll leave you to that. I need to talk to Carlise about some paper work." I excuse myself.

-0-

When I get back, the tent is completely different. The cots have been moved so that one is against the back wall and the other against the right side, the trunks pushed to the opposite wall with a crate between the heads of the cots.

"Oh..."

"I redecorated a bit."

"Yes. I see."

"Here's your trunk, Emmett's, the cots, and the box of Maria's letters." She gestures to the little wooden box on the crate. "I figured this way you'll remember to throw them out next week."

"Excuse me?"

"Next week, you're going to throw them out. I just don't want you to forget."

"Why would I throw those out?"

She smirks and with a tip of her head, chuckles.

"You have to figure that out for yourself."