Prompted by anonymous on Tumblr. ("it's okay to hurt & breakdown. you don't have to be strong all the time.")
Alice had seldom wanted to kill in her life, but never more than in that moment.
Tremaine had gone too far that time, way too far. It was one thing to mess with her or Drizella, but Marcus? Now it was war.
The little boy had been climbing at the monkey bars at the park and with some magic, he had been tossed off them. He was rushed to the hospital, diagnosed with a concussion and a broken arm. Alice and Drizella stood vigilantly by his bedside, counting down the minutes. They were told to wake him up every two hours and wanted to do it to the second.
"I am going to kill her," Alice grumbled. "No, death is too good from her. I am going to torture her, use my father's hook…"
"She's locked away, Al," Drizella assured her, putting a hand on her back. "I want to kill her just as much as you do, but Marcus needs us more."
Alice shook her head, tears building up in her eyes. "He could've died."
"He didn't."
"How are you so calm?!"
Alice ripped away from her wife, storming over to the corner. Drizella frowned, following her and watching as Alice tried to keep it all in. She was clearly willing herself not to cry. There wasn't a lot that the two had in common, but one thing was bottling things up until they exploded.
"It's okay to hurt and breakdown, you don't have to be strong all the time," Drizella whispered, stroking her cheek. "You can cry."
A single tear fell down Alice's cheek. "When he was a baby, he got really sick. I didn't know what was wrong, Rumple managed to find a potion and he got better. I swore after that moment I wouldn't let a bad thing happen to him. Look at where he is now."
"This wasn't your fault, this wasn't anyone's fault." Drizella squeezed her hand. "My mother is an evil woman, she doesn't care who she hurts in her wake. This wasn't something you could've prevented. And in the end, look at him, he's fine."
Alice sniffled, looking over at her sleeping son. "He almost wasn't."
"Well, he is. He'll get through this, he's tough." She touched her chin. "Just like his mama."
Alice let out a deep breath, leaning into her girlfriend. Drizella wrapped her arms around her, letting her have the breakdown she clearly needed. A few moments later, they could hear a tiny voice.
"Mommy? Mama?"
Their heads whipped around and found Marcus' hazel eyes flickered open. They raced over to him, pushing his dark locks out of his face.
"Hey sweetheart," Alice whispered. "How are you feeling?"
"Everything hurts," he said. "Can I go home?"
"Soon, I promise."
"Your grandfather called, he's set up all your things in our room," Drizella told him. "We'll have a big sleepover."
Marcus sleepily smiled at the thought of that, his eyes drifting shut once again.