FP and Alice

Part 1

Starts near the end of episode 19

"How could you be so damn stupid Alice?" Hal yelled at her from across the hall. She stammered in reply as he took a breath before continuing the cascade of shouting. "Now Betty and Chic have gone and you've put our whole family in danger! How could you do this Alice?!"
"I just wanted to protect my son, I thought he was my son, I.. I wanted to try and make things right for what I'd done." She sobbed clinging onto the banister at the foot of the stairs.
"Alice he was a complete stranger! Chic wasn't you're child!"
"I KNOW THAT HAL! But letting you force me to give up that child was the biggest mistake I've ever made and I was so desperate to find him!"
"Giving up that child was the best thing for you both! You really think that you could have raised a child at 17? Hell, you can't even do it now after years of practise" he walked closer to her as he said it, laughing.
"SCREW YOU HAL! YOU AND MY PARENTS GAVE ME NO CHOICE! YOU SENT ME TO THAT PLACE AND DIDNT GIVE ME OR MY BABY A SECOND THOUGHT." She screamed at him, reaching breaking point after years of build up hurt and anger. She moved closer to his face and spat through gritted teeth "You only care about your damn self... I'm done Hal. After all these years you still can't see that all you do is hurt this family".

With that he slapped her: hard across her cheek and she stumbled back onto the stairs. She reached to touch her cheek and said hoarsely "You bastard! Still can't stop yourself can you? All you can do is hurt peop.." Before she could finish he'd punched her on the side of her face.
"Fuck You Alice" Hal said before walking out the front door and slamming it behind him.
She sat there shaking and on the stairs her face already feeling swollen in a kind of trance with tears slipping down her cheeks.

She was slowly roused from the state when her phone rang. A familiar name was flashing on the screen and without thinking she answered.
"Hello?" She mumbled
"Alice? Have you decided what you're going to do with Chic?" the voice was so familiar it hurt and she began to cry again.
"Alice, are you there? Are you ok?" Why did he still care about her? After everything she's done.
"FP..." She stammered between tears
"Alice what's happened? Are you safe? Has Chic hurt you?"
"FP I'm fine... Betty's taken Chic" she whispered struggling to get the words out
"Alice you're scaring me. What's going on?" His voice was so anxious it made her stomach squeeze. She didn't deserve his concern, let alone his help, not after she'd hurt him so much.
"It's fine. Everything's fine" she said quietly, stumbling over her words.
"Al-"
She hung up.

Why did she hang up? She regretted it already- he was the only person in this world who seemed to put her before themselves.  Maybe that was why, she thought she didn't deserve it. She didn't often to turn to drinking after a bad night with Hal and they were often enough but tonight was an exception; it was worse than bad. She wandered aimlessly into the kitchen, found herself a glass and a bottle of wine before trailing back to sit on the bottom step. She wanted to watch the door in case any of her family decided to return home. She swallowed a large mouthful of wine, ignoring the throbbing in the side of her head and sat hunched over, willing this nightmare to go away.

A text came through from Hal "I'm going to look for our daughter since you couldn't seem to care less". Of course he'd play all heroic and turn her into the pathetic excuse for a mother he always told her she was and she'd come to believe. She didn't reply, she just left her phone beside her and stared blankly into space with her head heavy from the wine and bruising.

Then someone was pounding on the front door. "Alice?! Alice are you there?" Shit. It was him. Why did he still care? "Alice if you're here open the door right now." She got up slowly and walked toward the door while the knocking continued. "FP you shouldn't be here" she said through the crack in the door. "Alice I don't care open the door right now". She did as she was told for once and opened it to find him in a crazed kind of panic. She'd done this to him. Shit. He looked at her in shock. She had a huge purple bruise circling her eye and the whole side of her face was red and swollen. Her eyes were red. the tear tracks still hadn't left her cheeks and hair was messy.

"Ali-" before he could finish she was leaning up against him, sobbing into his chest. He held her and stroked her hair, reassuring her and kissing the top of her head. She smelled faintly of wine and soap but still like the Alice he'd known in high school. Who the hell had done this to her? Who could of hurt her- Alice who wouldn't hurt a fly unless it was to protect the things she loved.

He let her cry for a while, rubbing circles on her back and attempting to soothe her before pulling her away and looking into her eyes.

"What happened Alice? Who did this to you?"