I don't own anything.
She saw the "construction worker." He wore normal clothes, no hat, not a smidge of darkness around his eyes, and his hair was brown, but she still knew.
"Hatter!" she yelled, running and jumping straight into his arms.
She cringed at the feel of gauze against the spots where the nurses had taken blood and shoved in IV's. She breathed out in a choked gasp as the air raced out of her lungs and her throat filled with things unsaid. He sighed in return and held her close.
"Finally," he said, one of the many bursts of words and jumbles of letters in his head.
"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," she told him sincerely.
She had thought that she'd never see him again and that the last memories she'd have were those of him telling her to go home without him, with a blasé tone that tore her to pieces.
She let him go and backed up, looking at the way he'd changed since that last time she'd seen him. He had the prickle of stubble, a haircut that marked him as any other person walking the streets, and the complexion of a normal human, without the stark contrast between dark and light that usually played on the faces of Wonderlanders, but she still saw her same Hatter.
He leaned in to kiss her and she angled herself and brought her lips to his, despite the look of pure confusion and horror that played across her mother's face.
"I missed you," he whispered fervently and achingly.
She only answered him with another kiss, a kiss that she meant wholeheartedly and more honestly than she ever had before.
For once, she didn't think about how embarrassing it was that her mother was watching her kiss someone whom she thought was a total stranger; she didn't think about what was wise or what his "intentions" were. They'd been through too much and left too much undone to think about details right then.
"Alice!" her mother finally screeched, her voice cracking. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Oh," she and Hatter chorused.
Hatter wheeled around. "Hi, Mrs.-uh," he chuckled nervously.
"Hamilton," Alice whispered.
"Hamilton! Mrs. Hamilton, I apologize about the shock, but I- Alice and I, we're good friends, you see?"
"Friends?" she asked suspiciously.
"Well, that's what you are when you break up, right? Friends?"
"Break up?" Mrs. Hamilton questioned again.
"Alice, help me out, yeah?" he murmured anxiously out of the side of his mouth.
"Mom, this is Hatter, David," she looked to Hatter for confirmation of his pseudonym; he nodded. "David Hatter is an ex of mine, one that I didn't get around to introducing you to."
"You dated a construction worker? And what happened to Jack? Was it the ring? I told you that he probably didn't mean it the way you thought."
"Jack wasn't who he said he was, Mom."
"They never are, Alice," she confessed cynically.
"Hatter, can I talk to you outside?" Alice asked.
"Sure thing," Hatted replied, glancing at her mother, whose hands were firmly placed on her hips.
The two of them looked back nervously as Alice closed the apartment door behind her.
"What are we going to do?" Alice said, frustrated. She stopped to think for a moment. "Wait, how are you even here? Where did you get the clothes? Where are you staying?"
She was rambling and gesturing wildly, her mouth transforming in to a sternly-straight line and her eyebrows scrunching closer and closer with every worry.
He simply smiled.
"Hatter, this is serious! What happens when someone finds out you don't even have a birth certificate?"
He kissed her softly; first, on her forehead and then her cheek.
"Hatter!"
He laughed and kissed her lips. She almost kissed him back, almost.
"I need some answers."
"I have everything, love. Jack gave me the name of a good forger. The least he could do, I suppose, least that's what I told him. I've got everything. I have stuff I don't even know the meaning of."
"You thug," she teased, "you bullied the King."
"To be honest, it's not that hard, kind of a wimp," he said with a shrug, "Mommy's boys I guess."
"So, what about a resume?"
"I've volunteered with refugees and worked the 'stock market'-whatever that is."
"Immigration papers? Visa? Green Card? You know, with that accent no one will believe that you're from any English town farther south than Liverpool, let alone a full-blown American."
"Alice, I have it all." He stuffed his hand in his back-pocket and pulled out a driver's license. "Look, I have a birthday and everything," he added smiling.
"You didn't have a birthday before?" she asked, shocked.
"Did Wonderland look like the kind of place where you celebrated living for another year?"
"No, it didn't. But, you never even knew when it was?"
"Nope," he answered, rolling back and forth on his heels.
"So, you just made it up? How'd you choose the day?" She didn't understand how someone could just pick their birthday.
"Just picked it out of me hat, so to speak," he admitted.
"Let me see," she said, yanking the license from his hand with more strength than she intended. "The 29th of October," she read out. "You're kidding, right?"
"Why?" he asked, clueless and confused.
"My birthday is October 16th. I mean not right on the dot, but of all of the 12 months to choose," she drifted off.
"October 16th? I don't know when that is, but I'll try to remember."
"There is so much I have to teach you before we go back in there with my mother," she sighed.
After all, her mom could ask the simplest question and still catch Hatter totally off-guard: where he was from, what his parents were like, how they met, all sorts of things. Her head started to spin with all the possibilities.
"Hey? Hey, Alice?" Hatter said, putting his hands on her shoulders and gently shaking her out of her stupor. "You really worry too much. Just trust me, I have it under control."
"What city are you from?" she shot back.
"Bradford," he said, smiling, quite pleased with himself.
"Where is that?" she asked smartly, tipping her head and raising an eyebrow.
"North of Liverpool," he answered jokingly; but when he saw how her serious expression didn't falter in the slightest, he added, "West Yorkshire."
"Fine, maybe you do know a thing or two."
"You see? I've got everything under control. And now…" he trailed off.
"Now-" she began, before she was cut off…by lips.
His lips.
He had a little more than the average five o' clock shadow and it pricked at her a little, but it was not all uncomfortable, she rather liked it, mostly because she rather liked kissing him in the first place. There was the quiet sound of their lips parting; it barely had the chance to echo before the two of them leaned back in. She put her hands on his cheeks, lightly feeling the bristle on her fingers. She smiled, grinned, against his lips.
"I thought I was never going to see you again," she whispered sadly.
"Hell no, I'm not done with you," he said back, against her neck as he kissed it.
"Do I get a choice?" she tested.
"Only if you want one."
"Doesn't matter right now, does it?" she admitted.
He kissed her jaw line, all the way back to her ear and nibbled at it. She shivered.
"Maybe we should go inside. My mom is waiting," she babbled nervously.
He groaned. "I guess."
