Alice had been part of an unsanctioned, fringe science program centered around created an augmented human. She didn't know for what purpose other than to create someone with heightened qualities, but she did know with exact clarity what they had done to her and how agonizing it had been. The only reason she still wasn't an experiment was that one of the scientists, one of the doctors, had grown a conscience and leaked their location and files to the Federation. Captain Pike had been the one to lead the mission to the off-planet research facility and rescue her, adopting her shortly after once all of the records had been sealed.

How could doctors, people, do that to another human being, Leonard wondered in disgust and borderline rage. His nails had dug painfully into the palms of his hands as they remained clenched together while Alice spoke, preventing his anger from boiling over at the monsters that had made an experiment out of her.

It had taken Alice quite a while to fully explain to them what had happened, often getting lost in her own narrative as she remembered something or relived the pain of a procedure. As she went on, though, she managed to pull herself from her episode, talking and being heard helping her.

"Oh my god," she breathed in horror, realization dawning on her. "The man at the bar. Did I kill him?"

"No, no, no," Jim quickly answered He was still seated across from her, where Leonard had been earlier. "He was still breathing when we left." He waited a moment before adding, "We called your father, as well. I'm sure he's handling it."

She was shaking as if the stress of the situation was too much to handle, as she struggled to remain in the present and not lose herself to her mind once more. Leonard wanted nothing more than to hold her as she went through this. It killed him to know that what would have been helpful and reassuring for most would cause her nothing but pain.

Alice ran a trembling hand through her hair. "He must be so disappointed in me," she said. "I had been doing so well."

"He was just concerned about you," Jim reassured her. "We all were."

"I'm so sorry," she said, shaking her head.

"Don't be. We're just glad you're talking now," he flashed her that winning smile of his.

She chuckled sadly. "Yeah…"

"Can I get you anything?" Jim pressed gently.

The smile she gave him wasn't real. It was tainted. "I could use a drink."

"How 'bout I get you some water instead?"

"I guess that will work," Alice shrugged, her playful nature trying to assert itself, but mostly losing.

"I'll be right back," Jim said with a grin before hauling himself to his feet. He all but dragged Leonard into the kitchen with him.

Jim looked furious, his glacier blue eyes menacing as he began to pace back and forth. "I need you to talk me out of hacking the Federation files, finding the names of the doctors that worked on her, and murdering them."

"You're asking the wrong person," Leonard said, thankful he wasn't the only one feeling a murderous rage. "I have more than half a mind to do the same thing."

"What the fuck?" Jim hissed. "How does anyone do that to a person?"

"I don't know," he replied, trying to keep his own anger down.

"They were doctors, man," Jim continued. "Doctors are supposed to help people, not tear them apart and experiment on them."

"I know," Leonard agreed. Then the full weight of what he said crashed on him.

They were doctors.

He was a doctor.

"Jim, I think I need to leave."

Jim stopped pacing and stared at him. "Why the hell do think that?"

"The people who you want to murder, that traumatized her so badly, they were doctors," he explained slowly. "Damnit Jim, I am a doctor. I'm probably the last person she needs right now."

A strong hand grabbed hold of his jacket and yanked him back. "Listen," Jim growled calmly. "Right now, Alice needs people, her people, and, that's me and you. And yes, you are a doctor, you have an annoying habit of not shutting up about it, but that didn't matter when she let you pull her off that asshole or when you guided her back to her apartment." This serious tone of his was unlike anything Bones had ever experienced from him before. "Now, I am going to grab Alice a glass of water and go back in there, and you are going to come with me to look at that hand of hers."

Leonard doubted Jim's words, but realized that there was no sense in arguing with the man. Even if Leonard refused to do as he was told, Jim could probably drag him back in there anyway. He didn't have a choice.

"Alright," he relented. "But if she goes into hysterics at the sight of me, I'm blaming you."

"Of course you will," Jim said, his voice a modicum lighter in tone than he had been.

Before they returned to Alice, however, Leonard grabbed a bowl and filled it with warm water, while grabbing a rag from under her sink, one she might not mind if he got blood on it. He only realized afterward that he hadn't made it obvious he didn't know his way around Alice's kitchen as Jim had while struggling to find a simple glass. Leonard hoped that Jim was too distracted to notice that he blatantly knew where things were.

"How many Starfleet cadets does it take to get a glass of water?" Alice asked, her voice quietly teasing, nowhere near as bright and melodic as it usually was.

"Sorry, sweetheart," Leonard hummed to her, replacing Jim on the footstool while Jim took a seat in one of the chairs in the living room after he handed Alice the glass. Which she accepted with her left hand. "Jim and I got lost in your mansion." He then smiled for her, "I thought you said you lived in an apartment."

A ghost of a smile graced her lips, an echo of its beauty burdened by the events that had just unfolded. "It's a townhouse. That I rent. Ergo, apartment," she explained to him again, softly amused.

"You know, I used break into places like this because they always had wealthy owners and something good was always lying around," Jim piped in teasingly.

The smile faded faintly, "I guess hush money's good for something."

Leonard tensed, but Jim breezed right through what could have been an awkward situation. "You can say that again. I certainly didn't get anything like this out of Tarsus."

"That's because my tragic backstory is a bit more tragic than yours," Alice countered, playfully.

"You think so?" Jim challenged. "I can't go to a hospital for anything because they might accidentally kill me, my immune system is so bad."

"I was created in a laboratory," she countered with, the smile of hers growing.

"I was born on a space shuttle flying away from an exploding starship which my father had to fly into an enemy ship to save his crew's lives."

"Every day of my life was one test to the next with nothing in between."

"Did I mention that I'm allergic to everything?" Jim asked smugly.

"Not everything, according to you," Alice replied. "And did I mention that the only reason I exist was for experimentation?"

"You know, I might have heard you say that," Jim chuckled.

"If you two are done comparing sizes," Leonard interrupted, not sure whether he should be amused or appalled by their little competition. "Alice, is it alright if I take a look at your hand?"

The smile she gave him was to hide her nervousness at the question, and Leonard understood. If it wasn't because of the fact that allowing him to examine her hand would mean physical contact, it was because he was a doctor after having just relived her traumatic past brought on by doctors. It pained him to think what being around him, what being with him, had done to her.

"Sure," Alice answered as pleasantly as she could in her overly quiet behavior, extending her hand towards him. "Nothing's broken, though."

"I'd like to be the judge of that myself, sweetheart," he replied, offering her a small smirk. Leonard then dipped the washcloth into the warm water he had left on the floor and began to wash away the blood that had dried to her knuckles. "Let me know if you feel any pain," he added, very doctor-like when he noticed her watching him while he worked.

Leonard held her hand as tenderly the wrist, her delicate fingers softly resting on his on his skin as he gently brushed away the blood in as soothing of a manner as he could. Every now and then he would look up from what he was doing, searching Alice's face for any sign of flinching or wincing at either what he was doing or from discomfort. He felt a protective urge to keep her from harm, even if it was by his own hand as he tried to help her. She had been through enough, and Leonard didn't think he would be able to forgive himself if he put her through anything more.

This protective urge and concern over her well-being didn't still the subtle longing to feel those fingertips of hers tracing over his skin once more, though. Leonard still found himself craving her touch, though he doubted if he would be so lucky as to have her in his arms anytime soon.

"You said you were augmented," Jim commented, distracting her. "What does that mean," he knew what it meant, "that you're like a superhero or something?"

Alice rolled her eyes at him, her body relaxing closer and closer to casual lounging, though it was nowhere near as relaxed as Jim, sprawled out on the living room chair. "I guess if you need to oversimplify it then yes, something like that."

"Alright, my next question is very important," meaning it wasn't, "can you fly?"

It was the first honest string of laughter that came dancing musically off her lips, and Leonard's heart was no longer quite so heavy, a smile of his own tugging at the corners of his mouth. "No!" Alice said, before the smirk she wore turned mischievous. "I can land from a four story drop without breaking any bones, though."

"You're kidding," Jim looked at her, amusement written on his features. "What did you do, launch yourself off of a building to see if you could survive it?"

"Not exactly," she answered, her smile faded slightly. "It was when I was eleven."

Meaning she was still in the research facility, Leonard winced, deciding to quickly change the topic for Jim, since he clearly hadn't realized what he was getting into. "Well, it looks like you were right," he said, keeping the concern out of his voice as well as he could. "It appears that nothing is broken."

"Told you," Alice remarked, her voice betraying that she was pleased with herself.

Leonard scoffed lightly in amusement, smiling faintly for her. "There will be a bit of swelling for a while, I imagine, and some bruising, though I'm not sure how long for you given…" he let his voice trail off.

"I know," Alice said, her voice small. "I'll give you access to my medical file tomorrow, my real file."

Jim turned very serious as well. "I'll let Pike give you access to my file as well."

"Gee, thanks," Leonard said sarcastically. "Now I won't be able to plead ignorance if I accidentally kill you with medication."

A mocking hurt expression pulled at Jim's face, "What about your Hippocratic oath? Do no harm, and all that, or did you forget about it?"

"Trust me, Jim, I know it by heart. I recite every time you open your damn mouth. It's the only thing that does keep me from killing you sometimes."

But instead of playing hurt, Jim merely shrugged, smiling in amusement. "I honestly can't blame you for that."

Leonard hadn't been able to sleep at all last night. When he had finally gotten back to his dorm from Alice's apartment, what she revealed to him asserted itself in his thoughts, haunting him and preventing him from sleeping. When his PADD went off with an alert for a message, he had welcomed the distraction up until the moment he realized it was from Pike regarding Jim's medical file. Since sleep was tactfully evading him, Leonard had decided to go over it and figure out what he had gotten himself into when he told Jim he was his primary physician that time he had nearly killed him in the hospital.

He hadn't even made it through the first entire page of the file before Leonard had to get up and grab a bottle of whiskey he had stashed in his closet.

Jim may have seemed put together by all accounts, but internally, the kid was a wreck. The list of things he was allergic to could have been made into their own book. And the number of times he had been to the hospital, all under different aliases, could have made another one. It amazed Leonard how Jim had managed to survive at all without ingesting or inhaling something that would cause a life-threatening reaction and kill him at least once every week. By all accounts, Jim should be getting some sort of illness or have an allergic reaction constantly. Leonard supposed after three glasses into his file, that maybe Jim was just too stubborn to get sick, or his obnoxious behavior scared off anything that might infect him.

Whatever the reason, Leonard had gone through about half a bottle by 3am and had only managed to sleep because of the alcohol, and it wasn't for very long; he could tell that much by just how much he was feeling the hangover. The little amount of sleep he did manage to get, however, did manage to make him late for meeting Alice back at her apartment so that she could unlock her medical file for him.

Their files are going to be the death of my liver, Leonard thought remorsefully, dreading what was about to come as he softly knocked on Alice's door.

Those eyes of hers, caught him off guard and stole his breath every time, and her smile was always so welcoming and forgiving. "You do realize there's a perfectly good bell you could have rung instead of pounding the door, right?"

"Call me old-fashioned," Leonard smiled, her melodic tone lifting his heart slightly. It was good for him to see her doing much better, the memory of last night had haunted him. It had pained him to see her like that.

"More like barbaric," Alice teased, throwing the door open a little wider in invitation. "Did you have anything for breakfast yet?" she called over her shoulder as he followed her inside.

Leonard frowned curiously. She was surprisingly nonchalant and relaxed, as if nothing had happened. It made him feel guilty for not being able to forget. "Um… No. Not yet. I actually just woke up."

"I could tell," she said playfully. "Would you like anything? I have been told that my scrambled eggs are the best in the city."

"Well, now I have to find out for myself if you're telling the truth," he replied, a smile on his face as he let her brightened mood wash over his.

"Go ahead and make yourself comfortable," she smiled, waving a hand towards the living room.

Alice went about making him something to eat in relative silence, only making small conversation as much as would be necessary, and Leonard did the same, allowing himself to make it believable that he was watching the news she had left on. This semi-awkward silence lasted throughout them sharing breakfast and for a time after as they both avoided the elephant in the room.

What made Leonard uneasy was the fact that he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. He felt that things should be changed from last night, at least between them. He didn't understand how she could possibly feel at ease or relaxed around him, especially when he now knew the truth behind her past. How could her longanimity be so great?

Leonard set his fork on his plate, pushing it away slightly. Alice looked at him curiously, "Were they that bad?" she asked lightheartedly.

"No, it's not that," he frowned. "Do you want me here?" When all he received was a puzzled look he added, "Are you…comfortable with me here?"

Realization dawned in her eyes. "Leon," she breathed shaking her head. "I want you here. I've wanted you here every time you were." The doubt he was feeling must have been reflected on his face. "Leon, I know you're not them. I've known that from the moment I met you." Her chaotic gaze was searching his eyes for something, and he saw a glimmer of mischief flickering in the gold of irises, "You were much ruder than they were."

"Thanks," Leonard scoffed, ducking his head faintly as Alice leaned in closer to him. "Good to know I'm worse."

Alice frowned at him, slightly annoyed expression on her face before she reached out to him, her delicate fingertips tracing along his face, scraping on the slight stubble he had yet to shave off; and despite his reservation, Leonard found himself leaning into her addictive touch.

"Leon, I want you here," Alice said, an honest smile pulling gently at her tempting lips. "I'll understand if you don't want to be here anymore, though."

As Alice started to pull away from him, Leonard felt a surge of what he could only identify as panic, reflexively grabbing her hand before he was absent of her touch for too long. "That is the furthest thing from what I want."

Her smile was enrapturing and genuine in its happiness as she let him recapture her hand in his, pulling her closer to him. "Then be here," she whispered seductively, the words boring deeply into him before her lips pressed soothingly against his own.

The way Alice kissed was unlike any other Leonard had ever had. It was almost as if she was giving pure energy with each one, her tongue sending lightning surging through him while her delectable lips were the rain that smoothed away the brutality of her passion. It always left him breathless when she pulled away. And begging for more.

Pulling at him gently, Alice rose from her seat and urged him to follow her, and every fiber of Leonard's being was telling him to follow. But she wasn't getting him that easy, as easy as she could always have him. Leonard was aware of how tightly wrapped around Alice's finger he truly was.

"Didn't you have something to share with me?" he coughed nervously, refusing to get up at her tugging grip.

"I have many things I would like to share with you," her voice was laced with suggestive teasing, her eyes alluring, and her body language open. "The first being my bed, followed by…" she cast her gaze to the side playfully before looking back at him and giving him a suggestive wink. "Afterwards, we can share a bottle of whiskey and a medical file." That intoxicating smirk dancing on her lips grew slightly as she repeated much quieter, a whisper of a kiss. "Afterwards."

Leonard rose to his feet, closing the agonizing distance between them as he quickly wrapped his arms around her, drawing Alice in as close as was physically possible, though it still wasn't enough. His lips crashed forcefully against her, more needy and desperate than the one she had given him, teased him with.

"Who am I to disagree?" he traced against her lips, drinking in every moment of her presence as if his life depended on it.

~~.O.~~

So, it says that this is chapter 13, but it's more like chapter 12.5. It's something I wanted to put in the last chapter, but I didn't think it really fit with the tone so I decided to separate it and cut it a bit shorter.

Sorry if it seems a bit choppy. This was really just filler.

And as always, thanks so much for reading and letting me know what you think. It always brightens my day when I get an alert for a review. :)