Once again, thank you so, so much for your kind words and support. We've reached 31 reviews! For my poor little story!

I would like to apologise in advance, with it being Christmas time etc I may not be publishing daily over the weekend. I am not giving up though, and I wish you a merry X-mas, thanks a lot for your amazing feedback. I'm not too pleased with this chapter, but here it is! Also the plot thickens like gravy.

I've got a little question for you: so far I've left Alice's looks aside, without describing her too much, and that's because I wanted people to decide for themselves what she would look like. There's a couple of specifics I've included in on occasions, but overall it is up to you, so I was wondering this: to you who reads this, first of all well done, and secondly, what do you imagine Alice to be/look like? Just curious!

On with the show. Enjoy :)

When they get back to his shack, Vaas gathers her into his arms again and gives her one last, possessive, slightly aggressive hug before letting her escape to the relative safety of the bedroom. As she lies in bed, Alice is surprised to find that, for the first time in months, perhaps years, she is tempted to touch herself, to quench the burning in her body. It isn't a feeling she is comfortable with, and she shies away from it, instead tossing and turning for a good two hours before finally falling into a restless sleep, punctuated by vivid dreams that will make her blush for days.

Vaas is true to his word, and for the next couple of weeks he takes at least one to two hours a day to teach her to shoot, reload, shoot again. They start with a classic handgun, and when he is roughly satisfied with her progress he gives her a machine gun, which reveals itself to be surprisingly easy to manoeuvre.

"So easy a child could use it." Comments Alice, and Vaas chokes on his mango. It wasn't meant to be a joke, but if that's how he takes it, then all the better.

She shoots at bottles, cans, tree trunks, and on one occasion Vaas makes her close her eyes and shoot at something. 'Come on, I promise it's not your dog,' he tells her, and when Alice hears the loud thud of the dead thing hitting the ground her brain goes into denial mode and she tells herself it was a deer.

Once Vaas is happy with her progress on the machine gun, he passes her a shotgun. The thing is, Alice has grown in a deeply pacifist family, both her parents having not quite given up on the whole hippy philosophy and way of life, and once, as she was a little girl and they were all still together, the family of three travelled to the United States just to take part in an anti-gun law protest. At present, she is holding a shotgun, using her armpit to minimise the kickback, like Vaas taught her, and she slowly comes to the realisation that this is her favourite weapon so far. There is something surprisingly satisfying about the loud noise, the kickback, the necessity to push the empty shell out like they do in films. A self satisfied smile stretches her lips when he hits target, and she actively seeks new bullets, actively asks Vaas about angle and distance.

Unsurprisingly, her eagerness turns out to be a major turn on for him.

Since they started her training, Vaas has been using it as a very clear excuse to touch Alice, standing behind her, holding her hands as she holds the weapons, whispering instructions into her ear, brushing her hair out of his way to her neck, resting his hands on her hips and waist. But when she starts using the shotgun, and takes obvious, reluctant pleasure in doing so, his presence at her back now reveals the hardening bulge in his trousers, and his whispers of encouragement take on a semi sexual connotation.

"That's it, yeah, you're doing real good, keep going, fuck yeah..." He says, pressed against her back, his voice hot and husky on her neck, his fingers twitching on her hips. And that's only for what he says in English.

Other pirates occasionally watch them, and if she is at first embarrassed by her proximity with Vaas, this soon turns into feelings of pride as Alice rejoices in his loud, emphatic expressions of delight whenever she hits the target. Once, she scores so well,from further than ever before, that the pirates clap their hands and cheer, and Alice salutes them.

Her relationship with Vaas seems to have healed, and Alice is grateful for the second chance. She has not forgotten the afternoon she spent in Hoyt's base, being pinched at like she was a piece of meat. Next time she attempts an escape, if there is one, she's got to succeed, and it's got to be much better planned. She won't rely on anyone ever again, she'll plan it all out herself. If someone can ever really know Vaas, truly, then she is probably the closest thing to it. She's got the advantage of knowing a simple, essential fact Tim had never learnt: in all his madness, Vaas is extremely clever, and there is no outwitting him. But, she also knows that for some reason, he craves her attention and wants her love all to himself. He is progressing in uncharted territory, because he wants real love, genuine affection, and that is not something he has ever sought before, consequently he is struggling between the need to be Alice's captor, and the all too real necessity of trading carefully, as one step too far in the wrong direction would lose her to him forever. There cannot be true love where there is fear and resentment, but he cannot ensure that she will remain with him unless he uses fear, and thus causes resentment.

Still, he proves his good will to her by suggesting she visits 'her amigo the doctor', and shows his trust by giving her enough money to pay for the pirates' order. Or perhaps, he is still apologising for a certain incident which occurred a few days before and which Alice does not like thinking about.

Nevertheless, she knows it is a test, and knows better than to try and use that money to escape. Gaining Vaas' trust, escaping, this all will take a lot longer than she had ever thought it would. She just secretly hopes that by the time she is able to leave, she will remember that she wants to, and that's another frightening realisation to come to.

Alice drives up to the doctor's house, picks up the heavy envelope full of money and walks to the greenhouse. The holster on her hips and the heavy handgun in it feel foreign, but it is more the unfamiliar weight than the act of carrying a weapon that she finds disturbing. She has taken to wearing the sneakers every day, with shorts (it's easier to avoid Vaas' wandering hands in shorts) and a t-shirt with a low neckline (always better for ensuring Vaas' good humour). Her hair has grown, and it is down to the middle of her back by now. Vaas provides her with plenty of sweet smelling shampoo and conditioner, and has developped a semi obsession with her locks, asking if he can brush them. When she agrees, he actually thanks her, and there is so much gentleness in the way he untangles the long hair that Alice very nearly nods off on more than one occasion. She often feels teary eyed afterwards, because once again, these gentle attentions feel more intimidate than his hardly subtle groping, and it is getting increasingly difficult to remember what she wants.

"Dr Earnhardt?" Alice calls. The greenhouse is empty.

She walks to the house, finds it unlocked.

"Alec?" She calls again, without success.

There is no one upstairs, no one around the back.

Hands on her hips, Alice looks around the front of the mansion. The doctor's car is still there, but where is he?

She walks to the edge of the cliff, looks at the sea. No one, not even a boat. Just as she is about to turn around and start walking back to her car, she hears shuffling through branches down below, and sure enough, it is the doctor, making his way back from the bottom of the cliff.

She waits until he reaches the top, and once he starts dusting himself up she says:

"Hello, Alec, how are you doing?"

He jumps so hard his hand clasps at his heart.

"Alice! Oh my gosh, you scared me, girl!"

"What were you doing?" Laughs Alice, leaning forward to look down the cliff. "Did you just climb up here?"

"I-uh, yes, I-uh, I have in fact climbed up here because I-uh... What are you doing here?"

"I'm bringing this," she says, holding the envelope up. " I'm collecting Vaas' order. So what's down there?"

"Nothing, nothing. The order, um?"

"It can't be nothing if it's worth you actually climbing up and down this cliff... I mean, that's physical exercise, you know." She teases.

He lets out a dry laugh, waves at nothing.

"Yes uh, I just uh... I was collecting mushrooms."

"Mushrooms?"

"Yes. From the cave underneath."

He sounds funny, Alice suddenly realises. He's lying. She looks at him, trying to find the mushrooms. He catches her doing so.

"There weren't any." He explains, and she can see he is shaking. "So uh, you've come here on your own then? Vaas is trusting you with jobs now? Are you one of the team?" He is teasing back, clearly trying to steer her away from further questions.

"Yes, apparently." She complies, following as he hurries to the greenhouse.

"Well, good for you. There aren't many people Vaas trusts with his, uh... Package."

He is febrile, rummaging through his plants and under his work tops until he finds a brown box.

"Here it is. Syringes, pills, mushrooms, weed... This should last them a while. I suppose it depends how bored they are." He chuckles.

Alice hands him the envelope.

"Alec... Are you hiding something?"

"If I was, I wouldn't tell you, would I my dear?" He smiles. "Let's leave it at that. Is that alright?" He insists, and she suddenly realises that she is now a source of fear to him. If Vaas really trusts her, then she has in fact become one of the pirates, and the doctor must be feeling he needs to treat her differently. Alice nods, taken aback.

"Sure. Fine. So uh, what's new?"

"New? Oh uh, not much I guess. You must have heard about Buck, and the hostages? What do you make of it?"

"Pardon?"

"Haven't you heard? Buck was killed about two days ago, and his little sex slave was taken away. It's the third hostage that manages to escape."

"What?"

"Did you really not know?" He is genuinely surprised. "It's that Jason Brody. Him and his friends were caught a good few weeks ago, you were here then I think. There were eight of them. One got killed on the day, another was shot in the evening. Brody escaped."

Eight hostages, one killed on the day. Sliced open, his intestines a wet, steaming pile on a bamboo floor. Vaas pacing the line like a madman. How many bamboo branches to make a roof?

"He's gone and taken his girlfriend out first, and his blond friend managed to escape an outpost on her own. Now he's killed Buck to rescue his other friend, the one Buck was gifted by Hoyt."

"God." Breathes Alice. From what she's gathered, Buck was a professional hitman, so not an easy target. Three escapees, and still no Jason Brody, that cannot be good news. Hoyt giveth and taketh.

"Yes. I'm surprised you haven't heard about this, he's been killing a lot of Vaas' men, and he's taken a lot of outposts down. He works with the Rakyat, Citra to be more exact. Vaas has been getting very annoyed over Jason Brody."

Now that Alec mentions it, Alice has no choice but to recall that fateful evening, a few days ago, when Vaas returned at the end of the day in the foulest mood she had ever seen him in. He had walked into the shack where Alice was sitting on the floor playing with the dog, he'd kicked the dog out and Alice had just had time to get to her feet with a question on her lips before he'd pounced on her, pushing her to the wall, pinning her there. His touch had been aggressive, pushy, his kisses almost painful, his hips pushing into hers, and one of his hands had come to lift her leg up above his hip as he rubbed himself against her, grunting. The whole of Alice's being had gone into panic mode, freezing, refusing to cooperate, refusing to even process what was happening, what could be happening, what could soon be happening, and her mind left her body, went to count the DVDs on the shelf, count the seconds as they went by, everything but his dry thrusts into her unresponsive self. He'd pulled her hair, bit her shoulder, and as this finally drew a pained cry out of her he'd stopped. He'd remained against her for a bit, blocking her between him and the wall, then his head had crashed into the wall by her side, and again, and again. He then let go of her leg and she slipped out of his grasp, ran to the bedroom and hid there, her hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs. She'd heard him hitting his head against the wall a few more times, until he'd finally stopped and stumbled to the settee.

He'd truly scared her that night.

It wasn't so much the forceful, animalistic assault on her, than the way he'd repeatedly hit his head against the wall afterwards when he'd come to his senses. It was just so violent, so unexpected, so repetitive, so... So just plain crazy.

Ironically, that night,the urge to touch herself got so embarrassingly strong that Alice had even slapped herself, hoping to knock some sense into her damaged mind.

She'd been more than happy to pretend it never happened, smiling and meeting his intense gaze as he brought her breakfast and puppy in bed the next morning. She'd not thought of it since, had not once given him so much as a reproachful look, not responded to the careful side looks he'd kept throwing her way, pretended not to notice his gentle attentions.

Now that Alec had mentioned the troubles Vaas was obviously having, Alice understood the mechanics behind his sudden attack of crazy.

"Yes, I noticed he was annoyed." She agrees, and shies away from the doctor's prying eyes.

"Yes, well... The one thing he isn't annoyed with, is you." Says Alec, trying to lighten the mood. "He tells everyone the story of how you shot your friend to protect him."

This is it, Alice realises. This is what the doctor has heard. He's heard that she's murdered her own friend in cold blood, for Vaas. That's why he no longer trusts in their friendship.

"I still don't know who actually did kill Tim." Confides Alice.

"You don't?" Enquires the doctor. His eyes seek hers. "You truly don't?"

She shakes her head. There's a nagging at the back of her mind, and it is mirrored in Alec's eyes, but Alice is not ready to listen to it yet. She's doesn't know who killed Tim, and that's the end of it. Unexpectedly, the doctor lets out a chuckle.

"Are you sure you don't want some shrooms, my dear?"

Alice rolls her eyes, takes a few steps away.

"No, thank you. You can trust me, Alec. For real."

His laughter dies, and his eyes turn sad.

"What did I tell you, dear? Do not trust anyone here."

As Alice drives back, she thinks of Alec's funny attitude that day. She is sure he is hiding something from her, something probably terrible, likely to earn him the death sentence from Vaas. And how did he know the hostages' hair colour, the exact nature of their relationship to Jason Brody? Alice makes a conscious choice to stop thinking of it, stop proding at it. Whatever it is that Alec is hiding under his cliff, she is better off not knowing, especially if Vaas finds out. He won't forgive her betrayal twice.

Further down the road, she is stunned to find people on the road, people that aren't pirates that is. There are two of them, a middle aged couple, locals, and a smoking car in the middle of the road, blocking it. Alice stops. They look harmless, slightly fat, wave apologetically to her, point to their damaged car.

She glances at the brown box at her side, clicks the safety off her gun. Walks out.

"You're ok?" She calls out, keeping her distance.

"Hello!" They reply. "Rusak."

"Broken, is it?"

The truth is, Alice is actually not bad at fixing car engines, something she has learnt from Eric, and she walks over to the couple, unable to resist the urge to show off her skills. These are the first people she meets in weeks, the first non criminals, and she has the chance to do something helpful. Vaas might even be impressed with her mechanical skills. That and the shotgun, she thinks, you're going to break the poor boy.

"Do you want us to have a look? I take a look?" Offers Alice, her hand still on her weapon.

She sees the couple eyeing the red tie on her arm.

"It's ok," she says, "I can help."

She gets to the car, looks into the engine.

"I don't know why it's steaming, " she tells the man to her right, "everything looks fine..."

She catches something in his eyes. It is so imperceptible, so subtle, that she may have felt it, not seen it. The pupil dilates, his nostril flares, there's a nervous twitch at the corner of his mouth. Alice whips around in time to see the woman with a black bag in her hands, looking at her, awfully close to her. She jerks away, pulls her weapon out as the woman charges. Without thinking, without aiming, Alice fires, hitting her somewhere in the gut. She falls to the floor,screaming, as Alice turns to the man. Behind him, a lot more men, armed men, come out of the jungle. They all look local, and Alice instantly knows. These are the Rakyat.

Oh god, there's so many of them. They've got machine guns. She should have brought hers. What's happening? One makes a move towards her and she shoots again, hitting him in the head, a perfect shot, Vaas would be so proud of me. Four more charge, weapons up, shouting at ther to drop her gun, but Alice is too scared to use her reasoning. She fires at them all, hitting and missing, killing, crippling, but more swarm out of the dark woods and soon enough the gun is out of her hands, she is being pulled, grabbed, she trips over the corpses she's created as the warriors drag her to another car parked further on. She fights, screams, wonders why they don't just kill her, wonders if Vaas will think she's tried escaping again, wonders if these men were sent by Hoyt, and eventually all thoughts stop as Alice is hit at the back of the head.

Everything turns to dark.