This is just a little something in celebration to New Year's. My plot bunnies kept giving me issues and then bam! They came up with this. I will admit I'm slightly pleased because I do need the practice in keeping Mr. Tetch in character. Therefore, I hope I did a good job with this.

Disclaimer: Mr. Jervis Tetch (aka: The Mad Hatter), Miss. Alice Pleasance, and anything else belonging to Batman (The Animated Series) does not belong to me.

New Beginnings

A gust of chilly, December air blew gently into the lit up city known as Gotham. Few had Christmas lights, and other small trinkets of decorations, strewn in the windows. Along the streets people bustled about as they went to their destination, whether it may be home or at a party surrounded by friends or even gather in the city square to watch the parade live. Snow rained down from the clouds overhead. Within half an hour it would cover the city like a blanket just as it had on Christmas day. A sight, in which, held little to no interest to the blond.

He stared aimlessly out the window of the small coffee shop. Pedestrians shuffled to and fro with smiles of glee.

"A large herbal tea is ready for pickup!"

With a sigh he turned on his heel to retrieve the beverage he had—what felt like an hour ago—ordered. Really, it didn't take that long to brew up a cup of tea. Somewhere, though, along the way he fell short in his movements. Knots twisted painfully in his stomach and he turned away in hopes that unwanted attention would come to him. He really wasn't ready to face this—yet—and, he felt, like he never would.

Even over the chattering buzz of others in the room, the soft and unsure tone reached his ears perfectly as if it were whispered directly into his ear. "Jervis…?"

He flinched, both mentally and physically, at being caught.

"Jervis, is that you?" The voice asked again, a little louder this time.

There was nowhere to run, he realized with alarm, as the worker announced the awaiting tea to be picked up by the purchaser and a group of people huddled by the door as they said their farewells. It seemed fate was going to make him face the last person he wanted to face.

With a wide (and hopefully friendly) smile, Jervis Tetch turned around to face the young, petite blond. His eyes scanned over her appearance—a cotton, buttoned up coat and a red skirt (or dress, he wasn't sure)—and found that she was still the same as he remembered her.

But she's not the same or have you forgotten?

"Why, Ms. Pleas—"

Again the voice repeated in his head with the exact same words: She's not the same.

"It is you!" Alice beamed at him and it nearly made his heart stop. He had anticipated for anything and everything but this. "I was wondering if it was you, seeing as I had only caught a quick glimpse from the side before you turned away…"

A lump was caught in his throat and he tried to swallowing it away. "Ah… well… yes, it's me." The words stumbled out of his mouth before he was able to catch them. In some ways this felt like group therapy all over again. Only this time he didn't have his good friend—Crane—to help him out of this situation.

"—is, are you alright? You look a little… pale."

"Hmm…? … Oh!" He blinked awake as he came out from his thoughts to find a look of worry etched on the young woman's face. "I'm fine, I'm fine." He assured, nodding his head. Though truthfully he didn't know who it was that he was trying to reassure at the moment—her… or him?

Uncertainly shown in her eyes, but Alice let the subject drop. "I heard on the news that they released you from Arkham for good behavior and that you were also…" She paused—contemplated for a few brief seconds—before knowing it had been too long to continue on with the sentence. Instead she covered up with awkward pause with a, "Congratulations!"

"Oh, why… thank you." Jervis smiled and tried with his might to will the blush from creeping to his cheeks.

"Medium peppermint mocha is ready for pickup!"

Alice made a little hand gesture as she went to retrieve her drink and it made Jervis suddenly become aware that his drink was still waiting for him to collect. The two shuffled amongst the small crowd of people until they reached the door; Jervis pulling it open, quickly, and waited for her to exit first. Neither seemed to know what exactly they were doing—or where they were going—but didn't give it much (if any) thought. The silence between them was, surprisingly, most comfortable as if what transpired in their past had never occurred.

From the corner of his eye, Jervis watched as bits of snowflakes caught in her hair. However, he had to avert his gaze elsewhere when she turned towards him, a small smile gracing her lips. His eyes scanned the surroundings and swallowed, painfully. Just another two blocks and they would be at the amusement park where that awful event had taken place. Again his stomach twisted into knots and he felt sick. Why was she with him? Shouldn't she be at home with—mentally, he both cringed and scowled—her beloved, Billy? He remembered clearly now—after all the hard work of just trying to forget—that the two were… he blanched… engaged.

So why was she here with him and not with her fiancé?

"Have you made a list yet of what your New Year's Resolutions are for this upcoming year?"

He had nearly forgotten about it being New Year's. "Ah, sort of…" He mumbled.

Alice gave him another smile, "Me too. And I hope this year I can finish them all…"

"I'm more than certain you will…" Jervis answered. And it was true; he knew she would be able to do so. She was Alice Pleasance, after all. A hard worker, a loving and caring and forgiving person… yes, he was positive she would accomplish that list she made for the upcoming year and more. As he had stated before: she was Alice Pleasance.

No, she's not.

Suddenly he felt his eyes begin to burn as that same voice reminded him of the truth. With a small voice he said, "Congratulations to you, too."

This time Alice was caught off guard. She asked, "About what?"

"About…" He felt his heart clench at the bare and brutal truth that he had tried to deny for so long. "About your marriage to… well, then again to the women it's usually 'best wishes' and not 'congratulations'… oh dear…" He grumbled angrily and cleared his throat to try again when he felt pressure on his arm and turned his head to find that it was Alice's hand. Slowly, he lifted his eyes to hers and found a small, gentle smile on her face.

"Jervis, Billy and I aren't married."

"You're… not?" He blinked.

She nodded, "Mmhmm."

"Oh." Was all he managed to say because what else could he say? Well… maybe… "I'm sorry to hear that." That was a lie; he wasn't sorry to hear it. Never for the remainder of his days would he be sorry to hear that.

"Don't be," OK, good because like he confessed to himself and the heavens, he wouldn't be, "I was the one who broke off the engagement."

"What?" Memories flashed before him of how fondly she talked about the man named Billy. Memories of when she wept when he broke it off. Memories of when she told him that Billy had come back to her and asked her to marry him. And she had been the one to break it off? Why?

"I realized something."

He didn't even know he had asked that aloud, but it didn't matter. "Oh?" Part of him was afraid of asking, but another and bigger part of him wanted to know. "And what did you realize?"

For a long moment she remained silent.

And then, "Hey Jervis…?"

"Yes?"

A smile, bright and loving, lit up her entire face.

"Happy New Year."

It took him a moment to hear the distant firecrackers and fireworks going off in the background. Partly because he was so intent on hearing what her answer to why she didn't marry Billy was. But mainly because she had leaned forward, stood on her tiptoes, and planted a kiss on his cheek. And that's when he discovered he didn't know what it was she had realized. Because—somehow—he knew; he knew what it was she had come to realize.

Jervis—despite the reddening of his cheeks—grinned, "Happy New Year, Alice."

Happy New Year!

For the moment, I'm going to say this is done. After all, I wanted to update something right at the arrival of 2011, but doesn't seem like that's the case. Oh well, there's always next year, right? Anyway, for now I'll post this and (later today) I'll fix it up, send it to my beta, and replace this with the better, revised version. But for now, I'm going to go crawl into bed...