As the years went by, the harder it became to cope. And finally, on the day she turned 26, she finally decided, that even if she was not going to get what her heart desired, at least she would be somewhere that actually felt like home.

So, once all the guest that had been filling up her home had gone, Alice set off to pack all of those belongings she could not leave behind.

Such a picture frame, a old wooden one, nothing special about it, but the memory in the picture that it held, was what mattered about it and made it special. A picture from when she was a small girl, Margrethe a teenager and mother and father were as happy as ever, just as they had finally come to find their dream home, before everything suddenly went downhill, back when she was still only a curious, carefree child, and happy.

Behind the picture, laid a letter, nothing more than a few lines, maybe it would actually more be considered as a note, but was on the written on it, was what had brought her the most of comfort through the years after her Charles death.

And finally, the first hair bow her mother had given her, one from when she herself was a child at that age, just a simple blue bow that held her hair in place, but it was the giver that made Alice not want to let that go either.

Before she had started to pack, she had said her goodbyes to her sister and her family, in a way that to others, just sounded as a normal "I'll see you at the next family dinner" but between the two sisters, would be the last one for a while, and she knew her sister had understood that.

After breakfast that same day, she had went to her fathers grave and sat down, at first she was only quiet and playing the grass growing around the stone, but then she had opened up. First she told him she loved him, and she would never forget him, and that she had lived out his dream before deciding to live out her own, because she didn't want to see it die, and then she had told him why she was really leaving. Once she was done, one tear escaped and fell down and landed soundless on the stone, and whispered one more I love you, before she went to go back.

Now was more the goodbye she dreaded for.

Though her mother had changed over the last few years, she still saw Alice as her little girl, and wanted her safe and sound and to be able to protect her, and seeing her first leave on the ship to China, all those years ago, both made her the proudest she had been, but also sad to let her girl go out alone in the world. But she had also learned to let more go, to let Alice decide on her own, and that Alice was more like her father than herself, and she had learned long ago from Charles, that you could not stop a dreamer from dreaming.

A year or so ago, she too had met a man, at first she was not sure she could, or should. But the man had learnt her how to take choices of her own too, and once her daughters had accepted the man, she finally gave in, and let love try once more.

With that in mind, Alice knew that her mother would not be alone, she had love again, and Margrethe and the boys would come to sundays dinner and she adored the boys.

It was not easy at first, but after some time with sitting quietly on the other side of the couch, her mother finally turned to her with a small smile, and told her daughter that she should go. Helen knew her daughter would be more than okay, she had proven that more than once, and she could not keep her here forever so she let her go. Alice promised that if the chance would ever come, she would one day return and tell about her adventures. Helen smiled and only said she'd look forward to that day, hugged her daughter and watched her leave for her room and her belongings.

Once Alice had it all, a small suitcase with the things that held a special place in her heart, and a few dresses, though she knew would get plenty of more, she thought just to be sure and her bathroom belongings, she was off.

Heading down that familiar path down the road, towards the Ascots' home, through their garden, until she finally came to the tree, with a hole underneath.

Before jumping in, she stopped and took a deep breath, and whispered towards the sky, "Please take me back"

Then she threw down her suitcase, and herself then jumped.

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