"This is Bo, remember?" His voice was soft and full of love as he stared down not at Bo, but at Alice, standing on the tops of his shoes, tiny hands gripping to the bars of Bo's crib. It had been several months since he'd taken Alice to see Bo. He could hardly wait to see what would happen when the girls combined the force of their powers. Not that Bo was old enough to exhibit any, but she would in time. Genetics didn't lie.
"See?"
Skouras' strong hands lifted her and she rose up, up, until she could see the baby sleeping in the crib. There was no sound but that of the baby's breathing mixed with Alice and Skouras' own.
"Bo." He repeated. "Say hi to Bo."
Alice grinned and reached out a hand, eagerly, to touch Bo's face. As she reached out her chubby toddler hand rays of light emanated from her fingers, falling on the baby's face like sunshine.
Alice, fingers extended, managed to touch Bo's forehead just as a startled Roman Skouras rapidly drew her back.
"Alice, what did you do?" His voice was harsh in his fear. After all there was no telling exactly what Alice was capable of.
But, Alice simply smiled a toothy grin, her eyes flashing like tiny sparks.
"Mine!"
"Mine!" She crowed, kicking her feet. "Mine! Mine! Mine!"
"Okay," Skouras laughed, relieved that whatever Alice had inadvertently done hadn't harmed Bo. "She can be yours to play with when you come over here. But," he cautioned, "don't tell Mama about our little visits okay? It will be our secret that I take you to see the baby."
Alice Adams didn't give a good god-damn about Skouras' piddly concerns and let him know so with a scornful tone of voice and phrase. "I no care! It mine! Mine!" She hit Bo on the foot in emphasis. Bo awoke then and began to scream, kicking her feet and flailing her arms, not accustomed to being awoken by physical pain.
Alice wrinkled her nose and drew her body as far away from the noise as possible, burying her face into Roman's chest, eliciting another laugh from Skouras.
"You still want her now?" He joked. Her little face contorted in distaste Alice now shook her head and squirmed to be let down.
"It noise!" She shouted, covering her ears with her hands.
In a moment Bo settled herself back to sleep, and Skouras picked Alice back up, a new question on his mind.
"Do you know who she is?" He whispered, holding Alice above Bo's sleeping form once again.
"Her noisy!" She asserted.
Skouras smiled, remembering Alice's inherent stubborn nature. "You do know, don't you? You do," he grinned. "Tell me who she is."
"Mine toy!"
With a sigh of frustration Skouras answered, "That's not what I mean, Alice. That's not at all what I mean, and you know it."
"Her mine toy," she repeated, looking into SKouras' eyes with an expression that delighted in knowing the truth and not saying it, being purposely obtuse. Her cackle of joy at Skouras repeated sigh only cemented this fact.
"Her be mine toy."
"You know Alice, I adore you, but I am certain at times like this that your only joy in life is tormenting me." He thought of the flowers he'd asked her to grow the other day and her delight in not doing so. He knew this was a part of a toddler's natural growth in learning, and the joy that the power of disobedience brought. Lately this was proving to be more fun for Alice than almost anything else.
It was hard to keep a straight face as Alice's blue eyes stared at him while her smile widened slowly like the Cheshire cat.
"Dr. Skouras?"
The knock on his closed office door startled him out of the dream. Skouras stifled the urge to cry or scream in rage at the disturbance.
"What is it?" His voice was acid. The only time he could see Alice now was in his dreams. And some days he wasn't even allowed that.
"Uh," Corey's voice was pathetically whiney and hesitant, "I know your flight just got in Dr. Skouras, I'm sorry to bother you, but..."
"But what?" His sigh of annoyance was audible as he rose to his feet, straightened the objects on his desk so it didn't appear that he'd dozed off, and opened the door.
Corey stood there, pathetic and eager as a puppy. He held out a laptop in offering.
"There's something here I think you should see."
Skouras shot him a scathing look of disgust and annoyance, but it didn't seem to help as Corey opened his mouth to continue talking.
"A little girl was here the other day looking for you. She didn't match up with any of our residents. She knew you, and she displayed powers while here."
At 'little girl' Roman's heart jumped. He leaned forward, and grabbed the laptop Corey held open. He hit play.
Skouras watched the survelliance footage that showed none other than Alice running up the front path and pounding on the door. Then the door opened spontaneously. Then there was more footage of her running down the hall to his office.
Tears were forming in his eyes. Rapidly he brushed them away with the back of his hand.
"She's so strong." The words leaving his mouth were a whisper, but he shone with pride and joy of knowing she was really alive. For once, he wasn't speaking about her powers alone.
"Where is she?" He barely dared to hope. "Where did she come from? How did she get here?"
"We don't know. She disappeared."
"Find her!" He snapped. "Use your other footage!"
Corey made a few taps on the laptop. There was nothing to be seen but the falling snow on the estate landscape.
"There!" Roman pointed to Bo's bedroom window.
Corey paused and keyed in the video. "There's movement there, and...thirty seconds later you can see the girl leaving the building-"
"Heading for here, for me." Skouras's voice was soft, as if only speaking to himself. Admittedly and sadly he wasn't sure if she wanted to find him so that she could exact revenge ie kill him, or if all her memories of that night had been repressed. In which case, she'd only want to hug and 'cuddo'. Even if that weren't the case, Roman was certain it would take little convincing to get her to believe he'd not shot Natalie Adams and her husband in cold blood. After all, he'd only been trying to protect Alice, to look out for her best interest. And her best interest was to stay safely at Symphonique.
"We can search the north boundary and then-"
"No," Skouras held up a hand. "This problem has an easy solution." He began walking put made a stop motion with his hand, indicating he didn't want or need the boy's following.
"Bo will know where she is."
Bo was sitting at her tea table across from Zoe, in Bo's personal livingroom. Skouras paid no mind, and lifted her out of the chair and deposited her on the floor in front of him.
"Bo," he crouched on the floor, closer to the height of the four year old, "do you remember the little girl that came here the other day?"
It was a good tactic, he knew.
Bo had looked at him, eyes wide with fear. Then she'd looked off to the side, into thin air, as if looking to someone else for advice. When that proved unhelpful, she decided to stay silent, and look at the floor.
"Bo, I need your help. I need to find her."
Bo shook her head.
Skouras moved closer, grasping Bo's chin and tilting it up till she looked into his eyes.
"Tell me where Alice is. You saw her. She was here."
That got a wide smile and a laugh from Bo. "I told her it wasn't her name!" She laughed until she fell over. "I told her!"
Skouras latched onto this.
"So, she was here."
Bo stopped laughing and looked pained, as if she'd done the wrong thing.
"Where did she go?"
"I dunno."
Feeling desperate and caged, Skouras grabbed Bo by the shoulders and shook her. "Tell me!"
"Roman!" Zoe's voice was like the scream of a hawk, and she was on her feet, a hand outstretched to stop any other action from him.
Bo began to cry and sank down into a ball on the floor. "I can't tell!" She sobbed. "I can't tell!"
It wasn't the answer he'd wanted, but at least it confirmed that Bo did know where Alice was. After all, she didn't say she didn't know.
"Can you bring her here?" He increased the volume of his voice, not caring that Bo was upset, only wanting answers, and Alice. "Can you bring her back?"
"Roman!" Milton's sudden voice in the room was a sharp bark. Roman'd heard him enter the room when Bo began to cry, but paid it no mind.
He rose to his feet to face him. "You don't know, Milton. You have no idea who this other girl is."
"Your niece?" Milton let the word sound as if he knew something about that were a lie. The twinkle in his eye confirmed it.
Roman looked at him sharply. If he found out about Symphonique, it could be the end of it.
But Milton smiled mildly, like a cat who's caught a mouse. "I saw the curls at the end of those braids. And I remember the girl you brought in to see Bo, a head full of curly blonde hair. A girl you told me was your niece. Besides," there was a darkness to his tone, "I've never known you to show such real concern and affection towards another living being as you showed to that little girl."
"I need to know where she is!"
Milton's voice was cool and measured. "You won't get that information from Bo," he answered. "She doesn't have it."
It was a lie and Roman knew it.
"I don't have to put up with this." Without another word Roman turned and walked out of the residence. Once outside however, he grabbed his Symphonique cell phone and dialed. If Alice would go anywhere, it would be home.
"Alice was spotted 300 miles south of Symphonique," he spoke. "Send out the search party again. Get the dogs too. Comb every inch of those woods and every corner of every building. Find her. Bring her home."
Already he was thinking of the pillow that he kept in an airtight bag, with everything else that still held her scent. Sure, it was supposed to be helpful for the dogs to use, but really, Skouras got more comfort from the fact that when he really missed his Alice, he could hold onto her pillow, inhale deeply and remember the little girl he loved.