Summary: It's been fifty years since Alice left Wonderland and Hatter didn't come after her. Hatter is given a way to fix his biggest regret and goes after his little Oyster.
Chapter 1: I'm Going to Find You
It had been fifty years since Alice left Wonderland. Fifty painful years since I didn't go after her. No, I decided to stay with my precious tea shop. And I had regretted it since the moment she fell through the looking glass. My Alice, my girl in a very wet dress was gone forever and I could never see her. The looking glass was out of commission for good and so was my heart.
Hatter handed Ratty a bottle of excitement.
"You know the drill Rats, one drop at a time or you'll explode, not on an empty stomach, and so on and so forth. " Hatter said, annoyed with the older man. "Glad I could help you." He shouted sarcastically as Ratty scurried out of the office, bowing his head.
"Pathetic." Hatter huffed as he sat back in his white leather chair.
He let his thoughts drift back to the one time when Ratty's presence was welcomed. Silence filled the room as memories filled his head.
In his mind, he could still see her as she was that day. Alice, standing in this vary office. She was very, very wet. Her cornflower blue dress clung to every curve perfectly. Her hair was soaking wet, dripping little droplets on to the grass carpet. She was gorgeous.
"Alice," he said aloud. "Why did I let you go?"
In his mind, he could see her walk up to him, lean across the desk and kiss him sweetly. Something that they had only come close to when she was actually in Wonderland.
His thoughts were interrupted when Ducky, the sleepy little man from the front room entered the office.
"Hatter!" he exclaimed, as if trying to wake his boss. "You won't believe this new tea! It's magical!"
"I'm sure it is nothing, Ducky." Hatter scoffed as he picked up his newspaper.
"Hatter, it reverses the time line of the drinker. It literally brings you back in time without paradoxes. You would be you, the only you, at that point in time. Its incredible!" Ducky explained. "It will make you young again."
This caught Hatter's ear.
"Oh really?" he asked, truly curious at the idea. Being able to go back in time, age back to how he was fifty years ago. He could go back to Alice. He could follow her through the glass. An idea was taking shape inside his head.
"Yes sir!" said Ducky, answering his boss.
"Well then, let's have it. I own the shop. I get first try at all new products." Hatter said, walking over to try and remove the small man quickly from his sight.
Ducky handed the glass to his boss and then left the room.
"Night Hatter." He said, leaving the room.
"G'night." Hatter said absent mindedly as he stared at the golden liquid in the bottle just given to him.
Hatter returned to his chair and contemplated actually taking this new tea.
"Since she left, a day hasn't gone by without her haunting my every thought, every decision, breath and every bit of my consciousness." Hatter said, holding the glass up to the light.
He places it on the table, scrutinizing the tea that could change everything for him. He could have her. All of the heartache that filled him with every breath could finally be no more. Though, there was another way.
Hatter walked slowly to his shelves, looking at one of the smaller bottles. Inside it was the coppery liquid of guilt. By taking the whole thing, he could just forget her. He could forget Alice. But he was scared. He didn't know how it would feel to not have her in his consciousness.
He took the bottle and went to sit back down at his desk. He ruffled his now gray hair and stared intently at the two bottles. One could reset him and bring him back to her. The other could erase all of this.
"Alice." He thought continuously as he thought about what to do.
"Take it. Follow me down the rabbit hole, through the looking glass." Alice's ghostly voice fill his head, urging him to take the chance and go back in time. "Do it."
"Alice?" he called out. She sounded so real but alas, she was not. "Fine."
Hatter took the time reversal tea into his hands, standing.
"No. I can't. I have responsibilities." Hatter said, nearly slamming the glass down. He sat back down. "But, I'm afraid what might happen if I just forget. I'm afraid what would happen if she weren't in my head. But she wouldn't have to be if I were with her." Hatter placed his head into his hands and took a deep breath.
"You would think that after fifty years, she would be a bump along the road like the others. But she wasn't like the others. I had loved and lost before and since her but no one has done for me what she did. What Alice did." Hatter thought to himself, finally making a decision.
He stood from his chair and sauntered to his closet. He pulled out the old coffee colored leather jacket he wore when she was with him and one of his noisy floral shirts. He put them on and topped his look off with his woven hat.
He took the time tea into his hand and walked up to the full length mirror, looking at himself with a truly happy smile.
"I'll take this man and make him young again." He said, looking at the liquid as it sloshed around in its container. "After fifty years of shit and waste, I would give anything for five minutes beside her and that is what I can get now. I will go back and find her. Alice, I'm gonna find you. I am going to correct my mistake and find you. I will come after you this time. I will go with you. Alice, I love you." Hatter said, putting the glass to his lips.