A/N: Sorry, I had forgotten to post the music video for Alice's ringtone in the last part, "Lost...", when I published it. It's now uploaded. Sorry for the inconvenience.

"Alice," a familiar, smooth voice breathed. "Hi, how are you?"

It was Robin!

She had not lost Robin and Robin hasn't gone missing.

"Great!" Alice cheered. "I am so glad you called."

"Didn't you –" Robin paused briefly. "Didn't you have my number?"

The corners of her mouth curled even more, to an almost impossible extent. All this time she did have Robin's number and Robin truly had wanted her to call her. "I did. But I did not know it was yours," she explained to the other woman and added tongue-in-cheek, "Nobin."

"What?" Robin uttered.

Alice giggled cheerily. Of course, Robin couldn't understand the joke. "You wrote Nobin instead of Robin."

"Oh," Robin huffed. A few seconds later she breathed out lowly, "Ohhhh, no."

"Don't worry. Now I know I did not lose you! Do you have time to meet? I closed up Hatterdashery," Alice rambled and sank her teeth into her lower lip, eager for the reply.

"Yeah, yeah, I have," Robin said sounding very breathless. Perhaps she was walking. "Actually, I am downtown right now. Let me check something."

"Alright." Alice nodded and waited with her mobile pressed closely against her ear. Bouncing back and forth on the heels of her boots she revelled in the knowledge that she would see Robin. Soon.

Her heart jumped when Robin told her in the confident voice of hers, "I can be at Hatterdashery in 15."

"Wonderful! I'll wait for you," Alice exclaimed. The full blown grin was starting to hurt her cheeks.

"See you in a bit," Robin stated before hanging up.

Alice felt a flutter in her chest. The bleak street looked a lot more colourful now. The sparkling green of the trees caught her eyes.

Green like hope. Green like Robin's eyes. Alice sniggered mirthfully.

Leaning her back against the shop window, she tried to stay patient. It was not an easy task.

Knowing Robin would be there soon, made the wait much harder. She turned her head from one side to another, unsure from which direction Robin would come from while keeping her mind busy by watching the people passing by.

She'd played a game and invented stories about them based on how they looked and what they carried with them.

There was Grimgard, the Fuming Stockbroker, who lost his last bloody encounter, Cherio, the Beggar with the Limping Shopping Trolley, who whistled to celebrate his last victorious hunt, and Faith, the Blue Haired Punk, who rolled on her skateboard on steam and dreams.

Alice felt the hairs on her neck stand up all at once.

Torn out of her daydream a shudder rushed over her spine.

What – ?

...

Somebody watched her.

Differently than she did in her game.

Lurking and observant.

She felt their gaze as if it crawled over her skin.

Her heart sped up.

Back straightening and eyes racing, Alice searched for the person watching her.

None of the persons walking by seemed to look at her or even take notice of her.

She gulped hard on the clump of anxiety constricting her throat.

A smokey and sweet smell lingered in the air, prompting some sort of recognition.

Just like that the sensation stopped.

Inhaling sharply Alice looked up and down the street again. That was when she spotted an oddly shaped shadow disappearing behind a corner to her left. A corner from behind which Robin appeared in the next moment.

Alice puffed out a breath. The icy tingle crawling beneath her skin remained but relief poured into her heart, distracting her from the awful sensation.

Perhaps she had just imagined it.

She was prone to imagine things.

Pushing away from the shopping window, Alice called the other woman when she was getting close. "Robin!"

"Painter girl, hi," Robin replied with one of her smirks. It was more gorgeous than Alice could have pictured in her most vivid memory. A tender glow sparkled in those olive green eyes.

"How have you been?" Alice asked falling into step with the other woman.

"Good," Robin nodded. "Mostly good. And you?"

"Great," Alice cheered before she remembered that the last two days she had not been very great at all. "Well until I discovered I couldn't find your number. I tried to find you elsewhere but you are like a needle in a haystack."

"First time somebody called me the needle within Seattle's hay," Robin joked with a grin. Her rosy lips spread over her face in a perfect curve.

Alice grinned. She had not known how much she could miss Robin's sense of humour within a week after having barely experienced it once. She would love to listen to more of Robin's clever remarks. "How about a coffee?"

"No coffee, please," Robin moaned. "I just had two cups."

"Then how about – ?" Alice started but no idea crossed her mind. She should really learn more about Seattle before meeting Robin the next time. For the lack of ideas, she mused out loud, "Hmm... Another hot dog?"

"We could just walk. If you want, I could walk you home," the woman, who found her again, offered with a tiny shrug.

"It's two and a half miles from here," Alice objected. She did not want for Robin to feel obliged to walk her despite distance. Alice would not expect Robin to walk this long with her, although she'd liked to.

After burying her hands in the pockets of her trousers, Robin argued, "Well, we are kinda walking already and we could catch up on the way." She licked her lips – a motion which stirred fuzzy sensations right beneath Alice's stomach – and continued, "Plus, if you don't mind I'd like to know where you live so I know where to find you in case somebody of us gets lost again."

Alice could not possible argue against that. Losing Robin again would be awful and she liked the idea of Robin coming to see her more often, as often as she'd liked even. They'd never lose each other again like this.

With conviction Alice cheered, "That's a marvellous idea!"

Grinning at each other they headed north through the streets of Seattle.

Like a bell ringing in her head, Alice recalled something from their first conversation. Intrigued she asked, "Were you able to smooth things out with your mother?"

"I did. Thanks to your advice I braced up and faced her. She has not turned me into a flying monkey," Robin joked and Alice recalled her comparing her mother to the Wicked Witch of the West.

"It's not love, peace and harmony but we are working on it," Robin continued with a shrug.

Alice felt her heart lifting as her eyes traced the little, hopeful smile on Robin's lips. "That's nice. I am happy for you."

"Also thanks to you I finally understood what I want to do," Robin said while evading a lamp post and walking much closer to Alice afterwards.

Alice could feel her heartbeat through her chest and her throat. Robin definitely was a beautiful woman up close. "What do you want to do?"

Something swam in Robin's eyes and Alice could not tell what it was. Perhaps she was looking into the future. Gaze pointed ahead Robin told her, "Work for the people. Solve crimes, find missing persons and stuff."

Alice tried to picture Robin in the uniform of a woman police constable. The vision made Alice feel conflicted. Robin would certainly look gorgeous in any uniform. Beyond doubt. But it was not a perfect fit. The colouration felt off. Like this uniform was not meant to be hers. Concerned Alice asked, "You want to be a constable?"

"Nope, not working for the police but with the police as in becoming a private investigator."

"So you work for justice while doing your own thing?" Alice could picture that.

"Kinda," Robin tilted her head nonchalantly. "That was the major idea."

In a flash of inspiration Alice claimed, "You're like Robin Hood then."

Eyebrows sank so deep they barely hovered above the green of her eyes. With a deep frown Robin complained, "Please, don't call me that."

"Why not?" Alice asked blinking in surprise. She could not imagine how anyone would not want to be Robin Hood.

"For starters I am not a man. Also I am not British and I don't steal," Robin argued with one raised eyebrow.

Her tone was contemptuous, as if all those points were something rubbishy. Alice felt her heart drop a little and she felt the need to defend the British legend of Robin Hood, the generous thief. "None of these points are bad. Are they? You don't have to be either one of the two first points. The last one is a controversial one, I admit, but Robin Hood gave his spoils to the poor so that makes it good again."

"They are not bad." Exhaling a deep sigh Robin paused before she finally explained, "It's just that except for my first name, archery and a strong sense of justice there is nothing that's similar between me and the legendary Robin Hood. It makes me feel uncomfortable to be compared to him. And no, that's not the first time somebody did. Imagine all the jokes I had to endure after I started archery."

Understanding now what troubled Robin, Alice own dread slipped away. The sound of contempt hadn't been caused by those points Robin was missing but because she was missing them.

Alice could relate to the sentiment. Growing up with ideals that she could not live up to because she was not like other girls had fed on her insecurities. So she tried to cheer up Robin somehow and explained, "Perhaps you've missed the point then. Everything about Robin Hood goes back to justice. The archery and even the stealing. Robin Hood stands for an ideal. Not for his acts."

"I guess, you're right. Somehow," Robin agreed with a shrug.

The motion was less laid-back and more tentative than Alice had seen her express before. "You have a heart of justice. Just like Robin Hood. That's all that is important," Alice tried to comfort her.

"Maybe, in some way," Robin said and started to sneered. "On the other hand I don't have merry men or a Maid Marian either."

"If you want, I could be your merry woman or your maid Marian," Alice offered with a grin. In her mind she pictured herself and Robin on all kinds of adventures. Sword fights, close escapades, thrilling getaways, horse rides and starry nights. Side by side. With Robin.

It took a few steps until Alice noticed that Robin wasn't walking beside her any longer.

"Robin?" Alice looked over her shoulder.

Clearing her throat, Robin fell into step with her again. A red hue coloured her cheeks. After a short chuckle she huffed, "Sorry, I – my mind drifted. Just had a sudden need for air."

Alice remembered how breathless Robin sounded at the phone. What if Robin was poorly or had some chronic illnesses? Worried she stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Perhaps we shouldn't walk then. Is it asthma? Do you have your inhaler?"

To her surprise Robin guffawed and shook her head."I don't have asthma."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Alice frowned at her confused. Even more so when Robin stopped walking. Again.

Had Alice said something wrong?

Her lower lip dropped when a breathtaking smile bloomed on Robin's face and her eyes softened to a tender glow of pastel green.

"Alice Jones, you are without any doubt somebody very special," she breathed out in velvety tunes.

Alice's heart soared and her skin prickled as a flame of rapture coursed through her blood. Heat exploded on her cheeks and climbed up her face, up to the points of her ears. A stuttered, "Thank you," was all she could muster in return.

Some exchanged smiles, shy brushes of hair and bites into the lip later Alice recovered from the gleeful blast.

For the rest of the walk they talked. Alice told her about her work, her call with her papa – of course not in every detail! – and where she studied, in which Robin appeared to be quite interested for some reason unbeknown to Alice.

Robin told her about going to New York the next week to get first hand information from her cousin's birth mother. The thought that Alice wouldn't be able to see Robin for a whole week tasted sour. But it was made up with the very exciting stories about Robin's family.

Alice learned that Robin's aunt was not the biological mother of her cousin Henry but adopted him. The NYC mother, like Robin called her, had given birth to him but given him up for adoption.

Both sounded like strong women, one for raising a child alone and the other for giving up their child to give it its best chance unlike Alice's own birth mother who selfishly abandoned her.

It was a curious family, the likes of which had been unheard in Nuneham Courtenay. But to Alice this curious family sounded like a paragon of liberty. The only thing that had been accepted and considered normal in Nuneham Courtenay was the constellation father-mother-children.

Alice liked the idea of becoming a mother without bearing a child or, perhaps, even becoming a wife without marrying a husband.

The possibilities seemed limitless!

Her papa always used to say, only in limitless spaces like the sea or the sky one could find true freedom.

Alice hoped to meet one these strong women one day. Obviously, the women in Robin's life had a strong impact on her, having shaped her into the confident woman she was tosay. A woman who was not afraid to voice her opinion. A woman who was quick to smirk. A woman who cherished honesty and truth.

'Perfect,' rang through Alice's head and she remembered how she told Robin, nobody was perfect, until she'd looked into olive green eyes binding her under a spell.

"Say," Robin startled her out of her line of thoughts as they stopped in front of the entrance to the lofty building of Cornish Commons. The glasses, entrapped in rectangular frames, reflected their shapes like mirrors. "Would you like to meet again? I thought we could settle a date, so we knew when to meet without playing the Chicken game or Hide and Seek. Neither one of us seems to be very good at them, to be honest."

(Cornish Commons, Seattle, WA)

There was no question whether Robin was perfect or not. To Alice and for Alice, she was perfect. Her sharp tongue, her cleverness, the way she talked challenged and stimulated Alice's mind. The green of her eyes sparkling with hope like fairies dancing above a greyish haze wafted a hum inside Alice.

To Alice it seemed like a miracle, that a woman like Robin Mills would want to see her again but she could not deny herself any further second being close to her as long as she let her.

"I'd like that," she told her perfect woman in a croaky whisper and enjoyed the grin that spread on the face.

"How about this Saturday? We could go to the movies."

For a second Alice blinked trying to discern Robin's suggestion.

She felt giddy but also mournful when she understood that Robin wanted to go to the cinema with her. "I cannot say. I have to ask Jefferson first. My boss. He had given me a day off last Saturday. I don't know what time I could make it, if he needs me."

The grin deflated on the brunette's face in kind.

"Oh, okay then you just give me a call if you have time," Robin smacked the palms of her hands against her trousers and her lips together. "Otherwise, I guess, we'll see each other when I am back from New York."

"Okay then," Alice nodded with a heavy heart. "Goodbye, Robin and thank you for walking me home."

"Bye," Robin waved and turned around.

The moment Alice saw her back turned to her, her heart started to clench. She hated not knowing when she would see the other woman again.

"Robin?" She called after the retrieving figure even before realising what she wanted to say. She waited until the other woman looked back. "Do you like beignets?"

"Can't say I ever had them. Why do you ask?" Robin called back.

"Thursdays is beignets night. Do you want to come?" Alice asked. A mix of hope and fear made her rock back and forth on her heels.

Robin smirked and it was the most wondrous thing Alice had ever seen.

A/N: This was a bit of a longer part. I hope you liked it. If so please leave a vote and/or comment. It means a lot!^^