A gazillion thanks to rhien for her help on this story. (Actually, a gazillion probably isn't enough.)
Like most people, Alice hated hospitals. She sipped coffee in the waiting room and studied the walls.
As hospital visits went, she supposed it was better to be there under her current circumstances — waiting for her husband while he had a routine procedure – than oh, say, having an emergency c-section. One of those was quite enough for a lifetime.
That was four years ago, when her son was born. Her daughter had come three years before that. And then, of course, was ten years ago, waking up to find she'd only been gone an hour.
Wow, had it really been ten years? Where did the time go?
A voice interrupted her train of thought.
"He's waking up now."
Alice threw away her coffee cup and followed the nurse.
Hatter looked groggy, and there was still an IV in his arm. But everything about him, from his unruly dark hair to the way he shifted when he saw her was so familiar, it made her smile.
"Alice," he said tiredly, and the sound of his voice filled her with warmth.
Then he asked her a question and knocked her a little off-balance.
"I'm in... your world?"
That had to be the drugs wearing off. "Yeah, silly."
He blinked slowly. "You cut your hair."
"Yeah, a bit." Last year. "Um, Hatter? Do you–" Her query was interrupted by a doctor entering the room.
"Your husband's results came back clean," she addressed Alice.
At the mention of her husband, Hatter frowned.
"You might want to wait a few weeks and then schedule another appointment," the physician continued. "As he comes around, don't be alarmed if his short-term memory is off. That's just the effects of putting him under. You might have to answer the same questions a few times today."
Alice nodded, and the doctor promised that once the anesthesia was completely worn off, they could go home.
"Should be sometime this afternoon," she glanced at the chart. "Mrs. Hatter."
With a cursory smile, she left.
Hatter pushed himself up to sitting. "You're married to... me?"