Alice Bates

Alice Rose Bates is the daughter of Nick Bates and Elsa Feldmann. 
==Biography==
===Birth and early life===
Alice was born in February 1991 to Nick Bates and Elsa Feldmann. Alice shares the same first name as her great-grandmother. Nick and Elsa had been due to get married but Elsa went into premature labour on their wedding day, and Zoe Tate delivered the baby at Mill Cottage.
Elsa struggled to adapt to life as a mother, so on Christmas Eve 1991, she left Nick, taking Alice with her but struggling to cope, she later gave Alice to Nick, saying that Alice prevented her from having a social life. Elsa moved to Leeds, taking a job there, and Alice visited every once in a while. However, after a few months, Elsa put a stop to the visits, as she was felt the situation was causing too much upset for Alice. 
===Life with Nick===
Nick soon adapted to life as a single father and took in lodger, Archie Brooks, who looked after Alice whilst Nick went out to work. Archie's appointment as Alice's childminder raised eyebrows in the village, and caused particular concern to Carol Nelson. It was around this time that Alice accidentally received a bump on the head whilst in the care of Nick and her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Feldman. The following morning, Archie momentarily left Alice outside the shop, where she was found by Carol, who confronted Archie when he reappeared moments later and questioned him about the bruise on Alice's face. Concerned for Alice's welfare, Carol contacted social services, who soon arrived. It was a stressful few weeks for Nick and Archie whilst they were investigated but the social worker was soon satisfied that Alice was being well looked after. 
In November 1993, Elsa returned to the village, hoping to reconnect with Alice, however, she was left heartbroken when Alice failed to recognise her. Despite this set-back, Elsa vowed to be a proper mother to Alice, unsettling Nick. Just weeks later, the village was devastated when a plane crashed. Nick and Archie had been out at the time and Alice was being looked after by Elizabeth. As a result of the crash, Archie and Elizabeth were killed whilst Nick was left physically injured and psychologically scarred at having seen Archie die. Alice herself was feared dead but was pulled out of the rubble of what had been her home a few days later. Nick spent several weeks in hospital and Alice went to stay with Elsa, who tried to make the arrangement permanent, claiming that Nick and Archie were lovers and exaggerating situations where Alice was in danger. The court didn't agree and Nick kept custody, with the judge seeing no reason to uproot Alice from all she knew. Elsa refused to accept the outcome of the custody case and attempted to flee the country with Alice. However, Alice missed her dad, and Elsa, realising how selfish she was being, returned Alice to Nick. 
===Life with Kathy===
In April 1996, Alice's life was turned upside down when Nick was sent to prison for accidentally shooting a poacher. At Nick's request, Alice went to stay with his Sister, Kathy, who quickly decided that she wasn't cut out for raising a small child and tried to contact Elsa. However, Kathy soon discovered that Elsa had moved to Australia without telling anyone. Realising she was all Alice had left and just how selfish and uncaring Elsa was, Kathy took custody of Alice. However, later that year, Kathy and Alice started getting threats from the family of the man Nick had killed. The situation came to a head when Kathy's Mother, Caroline, returned home with Alice one evening to find someone attempting to set fire to Kathy's Tearooms. Although no one was harmed, Caroline insisted that her Granddaughter was not safe with Kathy and wanted to take her to live in Scarborough with her. However, Kathy was determined to fulfil Nick's wishes of having Alice with her, and Caroline eventually backed down. 
Although Alice quickly settled with Kathy, it soon became clear that she was struggling to understand Nick's absence, especially when Sarah Sugden overheard her telling a group of children that Nick had moved to Australia to be with Elsa. Alice then became unsettled when Kathy's boyfriend, Sean, left and later had a hard time accepting her new relationship with David Glover, thinking he would leave them like Sean had done. Alice even ran away from home when she overheard Kathy and Dave discussing a house move, thinking that they were going to leave her behind. Alice was quickly found and Kathy and Dave reassured her that the three of them were going to be a family. Sadly, just weeks later, Dave was killed whilst saving Kim Tate's son, James, from a fire at Home Farm. 
In May 1997, Alice had to contend with another new face in her life when Nick's fiance, Karen, arrived in the village. Karen's presence in their lives caused Kathy no end of problems. She was furious when Karen collected Alice from school without her permission, and she was left even more angry when she discovered from Nick that Karen was to take custody of Alice in the event that he was handed a lengthy prison sentence. However, what Kathy found most difficult to deal with was Karen getting Alice's hopes up about Nick being released, with Kathy knowing there was very little chance of him being let off. Kathy was later proved right when Nick was sentenced to ten years in prison and Karen left the area. The situation gave way to mixed emotions for Kathy; having grown very attached to Alice, she was relieved that she could keep her, however, she was upset at the thought of her Brother spending so long in prison.
Just weeks later, Karen secretly returned to the village and abducted Alice from the village playground, taking her to a hotel and telling her that they were going to live in America. Kathy was frantic when she discovered that Alice was missing and the whole Village searched for her but to no avail. Meanwhile, Jack Sugden and Rachel Hughes were returning from a weekend in Sheffield, where they'd been attending the funeral of Rachel's Mother, and stopped at a service station to call his wife, Sarah. Sarah told Jack of Alice's disappearance and by a stroke of luck, Jack saw Alice at the service station being led away by Karen. Jack was able to save Alice and returned her to the village. In October 1997, Alice was knocked over by a dog. The owner of the dog, Doug Hamilton seemed quite taken with Kathy and asked her out to dinner as a way of compensation for frightening Alice. Alice got on well with Doug but after a few dates, Kathy was shocked to find out that Doug was married and ended things between them. 
In July 1999, Kathy's boyfriend, Biff Fowler, proposed to her. Alice got on extremely well with Biff and was excited about the wedding, even though she was upset to discover that she wouldn't be going on their honeymoon with them. However, on the day, Biff couldn't go through with it and jilted Kathy before leaving Emmerdale for good on his motor-bike. Kathy and Alice were left devastated by Biff's departure.
===Elsa's return and moving to Australia===
Alice's life faced more upheaval in September 1999, when Elsa suddenly returned to the village. Whilst in Australia, Elsa had married a man named Brett, who had a son around Alice's age, and now she could provide a stable family life, wanted to get to know Alice. 
Alice began asking questions about why Elsa had left her and was worried that she would try and take her away again but Kathy assured her this wouldn't happen. On Elsa's first visit, Alice was hostile towards her, asking Kathy if she could play in her room instead and Kathy became suspicious of Elsa's motives when she asked if she could collect Alice from the school the next day. The following day, Elsa took Alice for a pizza after school and the ice between them began to melt. When they got home, Kathy struggled to hide her upset when Alice requested to see Elsa again. Kathy agreed to meet Elsa to discuss Alice but things didn't go well when Elsa revealed the real reason she was back: she wanted custody. Kathy visited Nick and told him that Elsa had returned and Nick begged Kathy to keep Elsa away from Alice, telling her he was depending on her. Elsa later angered Kathy by showing Alice impressive pictures of Australia and told her she had a step-brother, Shane, out there. 
With most of the village against her, and Alice appearing perfectly happy with Kathy, Elsa began to question whether fighting for custody was the right thing to do and she considered going home. However, gossip from Betty about Kathy's recent troubles confirmed to Elsa that she was doing the right thing, and she realised that this information could be valuable for her case. With Kathy's role as Alice's guardian seriously threatened, solicitor, Laura Johnstone suggested that getting Nick on side would improve her case and so Kathy visited him in prison. However, Kathy was devastated when Nick revealed that Elsa had already visited and convinced him that Alice would be better off growing up in Australia, where no one would know that her Father was a murderer. 
Seeing how much upset the whole situation was causing Kathy, Alice announced that she no longer wished to see Elsa, however, she quickly changed her mind when Alan Turner assured her that she would regret it in the future. Meanwhile, having failed to agree anything between themselves, Kathy and Elsa were visited by a welfare officer, who told them that if they could not reach a compromise, a judge would decide where Alice should live. In the meantime, Elsa was granted reasonable access and, with Brett and Shane having arrived in the country, it was suggested that a trip away to London could help Alice get to know her new family. A reluctant Kathy was left with no option but to agree and, when Alice returned, Kathy's temper got the better of her when she told her of what a great time she'd had. 
With the trip to London having gone so well, Elsa was sure that it would only be a matter of time before she would be taking Alice back to Australia. However, Kathy was still refusing to back down and she and Elsa had a blazing row over the situation in front of Alice. Alan intervened and ordered the two women to sort things out, pointing out what a detrimental affect the whole situation was having on Alice, who had started wetting the bed through stress. Things only got worse when Brett's work meant that the family would be forced to return to Australia and Alice was heartbroken to hear that she was about to be separated from her new family. With her niece's future happiness at stake, Kathy was forced to make one of the hardest decisions of her life as she agreed that Alice should go with them. Although initially unsure about leaving Kathy, Alice eventually admitted that she wanted to go, and Kathy was forced to hold back her emotions as she said goodbye to her niece. 
===Return to the village===
In November 2001, Kathy went to Australia to see Alice. Kathy's boyfriend Andrew was concerned when leaving the Woolpack one night to see that the lights in Kathy's house where on. Upon going to investigate, he was shocked to find Kathy there, having cut her holiday short. However, he was in for an even bigger shock when Alice walked into the room. When Alice had gone to bed, Kathy told Andrew that she was concerned for her niece's safety and brought her back without Elsa's knowledge.
The following day, the seriousness of her actions hit Kathy and she was forced to contact a solicitor to find out her legal position. She told the solicitor that she feared Alice was being mistreated. However, her hopes were dashed when she was told that without evidence of abuse, she could face charges of child abduction. It wasn't long before Elsa arrived in Emmerdale and she demanded to know why Kathy had taken her daughter. Kathy wasn't prepared to give Alice up without a fight and so disappeared with her again.
Kathy headed to the Sugden's farm with Alice and asked Jack not to tell anyone where she was. Alan assured Elsa that Kathy would return Alice soon but Elsa wasn't convinced and wanted to call the police. The following day, Alan heard the Sugden children talking in the shop and realised that Kathy was hiding Alice at the farm and Turner felt it was his duty to tell Elsa where her daughter was. Elsa headed up to the farm to have it out with Kathy but Elsa wasn't prepared for what came next. Alice, who was upset having just been to visit Nick in prison, told her mother that she hated her and didn't want to be with her. Elsa was left with no option but to return to the B&B to think things over. The following day, Kathy took Alice to see Elsa and they agree that Alice's happiness is what matters but it wasn't too late to put things right. After a phone call to her husband, Elsa promised to put Alice's needs first from then on and announced that she'd made plans for her and Alice to return to Australia. Alice was left divided by Elsa's decision; she wanted to go back with her mother but had missed being with Kathy too. The young girl quickly found what she considered to be the perfect solution and she suggested that Kathy move to Sydney. Although initially insisting that the idea was impractical as her life was in the village, it was clear that Kathy was giving it serious consideration. On the day of Elsa and Alice's departure, Kathy realised that there was nothing keeping her in Emmerdale. She ran the idea of emigrating past Elsa, who agreed that it sounded like a good compromise, and Kathy delighted Alice by deciding to join her in Sydney. 
Alice was mentioned a few times since leaving Emmerdale, mainly by Alan Turner, who made regular trips to Australia to see Kathy.
==Quotes==
"My mum told me not to go off with strangers." - To Elsa Chappell.
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"I thought it would be too sad to go, but it's not anymore. I can't wait to see you again!" - Final line to Kathy Glover.
==See also==
*Full list of appearances
Category:Emmerdale characters
Category:1991 births
Category:1991 debuts
Category:2001 departures
Category:Characters played by different actors
Category:Feldmann family
Category:Bates family
Category:Residents of 3 Demdyke Row
Category:Residents of Victoria Cottage
Category:Residents of Mill Cottage