A/N: The bit about him not wanting to tell her no in general is thanks to Stacy Dawe.

"No, Starfish. I've told you we can't." He watched as his young daughter seemed confused. This was not a request he wanted to deny her. He never liked tellling her no but this time he had to.

"Go!" Alice told him begging with the blue eyes that made Killian want to give the child everything she asked for and more. He hated to deny her this but he couldn't break through the magical barrier trapping her in here. He began thinking trying to find a way to heed off what might be a tantrum incoming. Alice only had a dozen feet or so to move around she could get restless and he didn't mind when she let out her frustration. He could always calm her down but he would prefer if a tantrum didn't start. He calmly started speaking to her.

"Sorry, the answer is still no." He hated that he had to deny his little girl such a basic part of life. He held in the curse he wanted to yell.

The toddler was getting increasingly frustrated with her present situation. A situation she still wasn't old enough to understand.

"Please?" she asked again. He had taught her that saying please was the right thing to do. And he couldn't cave. As much as he wanted to this was the one thing he couldn't just let her bloody have. He could try. But there was a magic stopping her from leaving. It hurt him. But he knew he could go outside if he needed to get a break. Alice couldn't.

"I'm sorry, Alice, I can't let you go out there." He wanted to, really. But a villanous witch had left a spell that trapped her in this tower. "How about we make something to eat. Hmmm what would you like? Marmalade?" He offered. It was one of her favorite foods. Alice clapped her hands together and nodded cheering. "C'mon," he told her, lifting the toddler up and carrying her the few steps towards the kitchen.

A 5 year old Alice sat on the windowsill refusing to speak to her papa.

"Alice," he begged a sigh in his voice. "Please talk to me."

"No." she shot at him. She had been asking him to go outside for a few years now. He could. Why couldnn't she?

"Alice, I'm sorry but the answer is no." The five year old couldn't understand why. He cheered her up with a game. He wished they could both go outside and burn off some of Alice's frustration with the situation.

A six year old Alice glared at the windowsill.

"Why, papa?" Killian was used to her questions but had no clue what she was talking about.

"Why what?"

"Why do you never let me go out? I keep asking. And you always say no."

"Because you can't."

"What?"

"You can't." Killian wrakced his brain, didn't know how to explain this one.

"Why not?" Maybe if she felt the magic she'd understand it some? He figured this wouldn't hurt to try.

"Try to reach your hand out the window," he suggested.

Alice touched where she thought her hand would go through and the invisble barrier there whirred and flashed a color. "Papa, what is that?"

"it's some kind of magic. If you try to leave it stops you."

"You can leave." she reminded him. He knew this. It was something he thought about a lot.

Killian nodded. "It only stops you," he told her.

" Cant you break the magic, then." she asked.

"I can't. I didn't put it there."

"When can I leave?" Killian sighed. He didn't know. He wished he had an answer for her. Wished she wasn't trapped here at all. But he couldn't change the situation. As badly as he tried. As badly as he wanted to. He couldn't do anything to save his daughter from a fate she didn't deserve.

"I haven't found a way to break the spell, Starfish. I don't know."

"I'm trapped?" Alie asked him.

"I'm sorry," he told her.

"I don't want to talk now." she told him and went and laid on her bed. She was trapped. The world outside her window something only in storybooks for her.

"I'm sorry, Starfish," Killian told her sitting down next to her. They sat in silence and he listened to her cries. He hated that he couldn't do anything about it. "How about a round of chess?"

She shook her head. "Not now, papa." He knew he couldn't understand. But he could sit there and be there for her until she was ready to talk about it. She cried as he sat there wishing he could take away how much pain she was in. And this wasn't even the hardest part. She fell asleep with the tears in her eyes and a lump in her throat. When she woke up she went over to Killian's chair.

"This isn't fair," she told him. He had taught her about fairness at some point in time.

"I know it's not. I'll get you out of here eventually."

"Why am I trapped here?" Killian dropped the book he had in his hand. Could that be a conversation for a different day? No. She needed to know. But this could hurt her.

"There was a witch. She wasn't a very nice woman. She disguised herself as someone else and lied to me, I gave her what I thought she wanted, then she showed me her true self. She asked me to leave you here alone but I never would do that."

"But why was I here?"

"You were born here, Alice."

"I was? Why? Wait how was I born here?"

He did not want to tell her this. But he couldn't lie. If he lied to her he was no better than that vile witch. "That woman was…how do I put this?"

"Was she my mother?" Alice had learned of mothers from one book or another, he supposed.

"Aye, but I don't want to call her that. She wasn't a kind person. I want you to be kind, Alice. Can you do that for me?" she nodded.

"Aye, papa,"

"Good lass, you know I love you. right?"

"I love you too, papa. Can we play a game?"

"Aye, wanna play tag?" he asked her and they ran around the tower chasing each other for a while. Laughing the entire time.

Eventually he would explain, once she was a little older, that Gothel had left her here in exchange for her own freedom. He'd apologize to her everytime she caused the barrier to whir around in its protest of her getting close enough. But eventually she would escape. And she never became as cruel as the woman that left her there.