Disclaimer: I sadly own NONE of these characters, they belong to SyFy

Alice was tired. She had gotten back from the hospital earlier that week, after which she had forced herself to put away everything from the search for her father. She now knew where her father had been since she was ten – she had her closure. Carol noticed Alice's sudden need to clean house, but decided not to comment on it for the moment. Her daughter clearly had something else on her mind.

That something had a name – Hatter.

Alice laid on her bed staring at the ceiling, attempting to get a little rest, but she couldn't get the eccentric man out of her head. She missed the other people she had met in Wonderland, particularly Charlie, the befuddled but lovable White Knight, but leaving Hatter behind felt like something else entirely. He was interesting, charming when he felt like it, brave, and surprisingly kind. Alice had only realized too late how exactly she felt about him, and she wasn't at all sure if those feelings were reciprocated. Judging from his distant goodbye when she left, Alice was pretty certain he could live perfectly well without her. She'd wanted to show him how she felt at the looking glass but lost her nerve at the last moment. Now it seemed too late to do anything about Hatter.

She must have eventually drifted off, because Alice suddenly snapped awake. Normally she was pretty groggy if she woke up in the middle of the night, but right now she was completely alert. She felt a sense of urgency, almost as if someone had called her name. Confused and a bit on edge, Alice slid off her bed and went to look out her window. She grabbed a blanket as she went and wrapped herself in it before settling down in front of the large bay window. She always enjoyed looking out at the city, so full of life at any hour of the day or night. Usually gazing out into the night usually calmed her, but tonight it only made her feel more agitated than ever. Her mind kept turning traitorously back to Hatter. She tried to get him off her mind, but it was no use. Every time she managed it for a moment, he would slip back into her thoughts. She found herself wondering how Hatter would like New York, if he would like living here. Alice groaned, telling herself these ideas were ridiculous. Hatter would never leave Wonderland. It was his home.

An hour later, Alice decided that she should just try getting some sleep again. But first she needed a glass of water. She quickly walked into the bathroom and reached for the glass that she kept on the shelf by the mirror. Filling it up, she gulped the water down then took a look in the mirror before she turned off the light.

She found herself staring at Hatter.

Shock paralyzed her as Alice watched the scene play out in front of her. Hatter was hurrying through the construction site that housed the looking glass. Something obviously had him on edge. His eyes darted back and forth, peering into the gloom. Just as he reached the mirror, a dozen suits stepped out from the shadows and surrounded him. Hatter had no time to react. Within seconds, they grabbed him and dragged him through the mirror.

The scenery changed in a blur, the construction site morphing into an unfamiliar room. The mostly black-and-white room had an incredibly high ceiling supported by twisting striped columns. Suits and gaudily dressed people, whom Alice could only imagine to be the Wonderland nobility, stood around the periphery. Hatter was on his knees in the center of the room with his hands bound behind his back. A dais sat at one end supporting an enormous red throne. A throne that Jack Heart was sitting on.

Alice couldn't hear anything that was happening, but both men were clearly furious. Jack was speaking, anger and arrogance distorting his usually handsome features. Hatter kept his mouth shut, but Alice could tell that he wanted to lose it completely. For some reason though he stayed silent, glaring at Jack the entire time he spoke. Finally Jack stopped talking and simply sat, staring Hatter down, waiting for him to speak.

Alice wanted to call out to Hatter, to tell him to rein it in and not tell Jack whatever he was clearly holding back. It wasn't that she didn't want anyone to hurt Jack's feelings. She was only worried about what he could do to Hatter, who was already bleeding from a cut somewhere on his scalp. But Alice couldn't even move, let alone yell, though he couldn't have heard her. A heavy feeling pressed down on her, putting her in a kind of trance.

And, Hatter being Hatter, he told Jack exactly what he thought.

Jack was clearly not amused by whatever Hatter had expressed, considering that his next move was to jump up from his seat, walk down to Hatter, and backhand him.

Immediately suits moved to drag Hatter back and towards the door. Before he was out of sight, Alice saw him struggling against the guards. Then one enterprising fellow kicked Hatter viciously in the ribs. He slumped to the floor and was dragged across the red-and-white tile floor and disappeared behind slamming double doors.

Immediately the mirror cleared and Alice felt lighter, like she could breath again. But her knees buckled underneath her from the shock of what she had just seen. As she crouched on the floor, the images flickered across her vision, always surging forward to Hatter. Hatter, unconscious, injured, being dragged away. All by Jack's orders.

After a few minutes, Alice forced herself to get up. She was still shaking – she felt like throwing up every time she saw Hatter bleeding, the suit kicking him – but she had to get out of this bathroom, she had to do something. She wasn't quite sure what yet, but plans could be figured out later. However, she was well aware of one fact – Alice would have to go back to Wonderland.

Tearing open her wardrobe, Alice began searching for something suitable to wear to Wonderland. There was no way she was going the dress and heels route again, even if Hatter seemed to appreciate the sight of her in her blue mini. "Do I need a reason to help a pretty girl in a very wet dress?" Even though she'd been offended at the time, Hatter's remark now made her smile.

Finally Alice found her favorite raspberry colored jeans and pulled on a light blue shirt, throwing on her dark brown leather jacket over it. She stopped for a second, realizing that this was exactly what she'd been wearing before the dinner with Jack. She felt a stab of pain at that but did her best to shake it off. She had Hatter now. Besides, Alice reasoned, it was the outfit she was most comfortable in and was vastly superior to running around Wonderland in tights again.

Alice also stopped and grabbed her small leather backpack. She had to travel lightly, but she was determined to be better prepared for this trip than the last. Finally she decided that a few bottles of water, some granola bars, pepper spray, and a pocketknife were going with her. She felt confident in her abilities as a black belt, but her last trip through the Looking Glass had taught her to be wary.

Pausing in the kitchen, Alice wrote her mother a note, explaining that she had to make some work related calls and would probably be gone all day. Luckily she had mentioned that she was going to try to get back into the swing of things earlier that day. Her mother hadn't been pleased but had tried to be understanding. Since she was leaving in the middle of the night, Alice figured that she would have plenty of time in Wonderland to rescue Hatter, seeing as time appeared to run faster there.

Glancing around the apartment, Alice hoped that she wasn't making a huge mistake. Before she talked herself out of it however, Alice shut the door behind her and made her way to the warehouse in a matter of minutes. She found the mirror with ease, seeing as it was the only thing really in there. Here Alice paused again, sudden dread of what she would find on the other side of the mirror washing over her. But she told herself that Jack would listen to her, he would have to listen to her.

Then Alice took a deep breath and went through the Looking Glass for a second time.