Show Yourself (An Elsa Fanfiction)

Chapter Eleven: A Proposal

Alice crept down the stairs, trying to buy herself some time in order to think of the right thing to say to her mother, but her brain floundered regardless. There was no easy way around this. Sighing, she stepped into the living room.

"Mum?" she said.

Her mother turned around, and the look in her eyes broke Alice's heart; her mother was trying to look stern, but it didn't override the sadness and worry in them either. When she spoke her voice was muted and forlorn. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry about earlier. It wasn't right for me to yell at you. I understand your concern." It was a bumbling and lacklustre apology, and she knew it, but it was the best she could do in the circumstances.

Her mother patted the empty sofa seat at the side of her. "Com'ere. Let's talk."

Alice did as she was bade, bending her legs underneath her comfortably as her mother started to speak.

"I'm not blind, you know. I can tell there's something going on with you, something you're not telling me."

"Mum, that's not it." Alice couldn't help the exhaustion from leaking into her voice.

"No, no, I don't want to know. If you wanted to, you'd have already told me by now. But I am worried, and if you won't talk to me... I at least want you to talk to someone."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Her mother took a deep breath before continuing. "I mean... I've booked you in with a therapist, the best of the best, in three days time. Her name is Serena Agincourt. I told her all about you and she can't wait to meet you."

Alice wasn't sure she'd heard correctly. "Therapy? With a therapist?"

"Yes."

"Mum!" Alice shot up from the sofa in indignation. "Why on earth would you do that?"

"Because I can't... I can't..."

"You can't what?"

"I can't live like this anymore!" her mother yelled. "You're so sad, so lost-looking. You're not at all like the daughter I used to know."

"Oh, and you thought a therapist would be the perfect way to cheer me up?" Alice yelled back.

"It might help!"

"No one can help me." No one except Elsa.

"But how will you ever know if you don't take the chance?" Alice's mother begged desperately.

Suddenly, shockingly, painfully clearly, Alice could see how this looked from the other woman's perspective. The daughter she had once been so close to had driven her away for no good, apparent reason. Her daughter, had, conceivably, come down with an illness that required the appropriate doctor to fix it: a therapist was that such doctor. By comparison, Alice's mother did not know about the angelic ice queen that made snowflakes and reassured the young woman of her sanity, arriving solely to help her achieve control and stability.

The angelic ice queen who was still in Alice's bedroom.

"Okay, I'll go, if it makes you happy. But I'm not promising anything."

Her mother sighed and wrapped her in a hug. "It'll all be worth it, honey, I promise it will. The sooner we start getting back on track the better."

Preferring to avoid sentimentalism, Alice broke the hug, smiled wanly, and headed back up the stairs without another word, knowing that a chilly houseguest awaited her company there.