It had been long, maybe too long since Alice had some real R&R. After the sudden "collapse" of the primary fleet, Alice found herself in an interesting position, her career, everything she spent hours working towards was suddenly out the door for god knows why. Alice already had plans of applying to one of the secondary sub-divisions, looking through to see which had the best chance of filling the Primary's shoes, even so, she was heartbroken still. She shifted through for several hours, realizing if her reputation didn't carry over, she'd need to start from scratch, which made her feel more miserable than she did initially. After years of being war torn, going to hell and back, the Royal Vauquelin found itself back in Orleanais for a much needed inspection and repair. Expecting the Royal Vauquelin to end up decommissioned at best after the primary fleet's demise, Alice found herself drinking back at her private estate on Ill-De-France.
Alice walked out onto one of the balconies, a few stories above the ground, she looked out to see the beautiful city setting in the distance, the closer she looked the more people she could see. Most of them just ordinary people, some wealthy business officials, even some of the Nobility, most notably some protesters outside the road to Alice's estate. Some of them holding posters, most likely liberalists, or better yet some democratic sympathizers, as she glanced in towards them some guards from the Noble's estate moved in to clear them out. Alice exhaled, shaking her head before taking another sip from her glass of wine. Alice looked out again, if her career really was over she had no idea what she'd do for retirement. She had no one to rely on, she'd never committed to a relationship or anyone besides her parents, and that relationship was still healing. Everything was started to slap her in the face, perhaps karma from all costly and cold decisions she made for the sake of her career, a career that meant nothing now because of one person's decision to dismantle everything. She could only think of two people to call that would answer, her father was out on duty with the GRP so he couldn't answer. Bernard, but Alice felt guilty at the thought of asking him to help, more importantly she couldn't get over how much she regretted not committing to a relationship with him. Bernard had been there for Alice at every turn, every failure, every success, every difficult time in her career. But Alice never returned the favor, not in the way she knew he was discreetly asking for, she knew he loved her, but Alice had never made commitments to anyone past one night, and for some stupid reason never saw Bernard as anything worth doing something at least similar with. The only person left was her mother, whom she had spend her entire childhood demonizing. Alice confronted and spoke with her mother once before her commitment to the primary fleet, but even then there was a hint of conflict still lurking in Alice's heart. But she was out of options, and she knew if she didn't talk to someone, she'd end the night falling off the balcony.
Alice picked up her cell phone, shaking as she dialed the number. After finishing she put the phone to her ear, she instantly herd her mother's voice. Alice? Are you back? How are you?! She said. Mama, I... I know this is a bad time but, I really need to talk with you, in person.What's wrong? Her tone became a bit more nervous. I'll explain I promise just, not over the phone. She started tearing up a bit. I'll be over in a few minutes. Alice hung up and immediately put the phone down, she couldn't bring herself to say anything else, she felt like tool, and she was -in a sense- being a tool. All these years of making her mom out to be worse than the devil and now here she was begging for her help. Alice fell into her chair, shaking and dreading what she was about to feel.