Name: Of Dinosaurs and Tea

Author: Forensic Fan '93

Beta: LAB Rats, Nick Nagisa, Kittyinaz, duchessfaleen

Genre: Family, Sci-Fi, Romance

Characters: Abby Maitland, Alice Hamilton, Carol Hamilton, Claudia Bishop, Connor Temple, David Temple, Ilane of Diamonds, Jack Heart, James Lester, Mallerie Mouse, Nick Cutter, Stephen Hart.

Mentioned: Connor and David's parents.

Set After: Series 1, Episode 5, and two months after Series 1, Episode 4.

Of Dinosaurs and Tea—Chapter 1—Through the Looking Glass, Again

A/N: This is one of the author's notes that I will be doing. This was inspired by Kittyinaz's Alice and Hatter. So, really, go read it. It's amazing and well written. :D The idea of Connor and Hatter being twin brothers bit me and wouldn't let me go. So, I bounced the idea off my wonderful sister Nick Nagisa. She wouldn't let me stop even if I wanted to. This is a late birthday present for her. And Helen and Stephen never had an affair in this universe and it was only a lie that Helen came up with to try and split up the Home Office team. This is only going to be four chapters and an epilogue. There will be a sequel. Promise, promise, promise, because I'm setting up for it in the epilogue.

Word Count: 20,146—all four chapters plus the epilogue

Summary: Why is Hatter wanting to come to Aboveland so bad? And who is that guy that looks like Hatter? And why is Alice being chased by a Spinosaurus? Post Season 1 Episode 5 Primeval, Post Alice—AU ending.

Disclaimer: *looks around doctors office* If I owned Alice '09 or Primeval, I wouldn't be here. Do wish I owned Stephen though…

Connor Charles and David Ascot Hightopp looked at each other for what seemed to be the last time. Connor's research had caught the attention of the Queen of Hearts and this warranted what was to come. Neither of them went by their real last name because the Queen of Hearts would execute them, so they went by their grandmother on their mother's side maiden name.

Although they were identical twins, they were as different as night and day. Connor was the more inclined to science of the two. David had a head for business and being a con man.

While Connor knew his way around a ledger in his brother's Tea Shoppe, he was more interested in why the Tea did not affect David whose nickname was Hatter to everyone but his brother and Connor as much as the other inhabitants of Wonderland. It was due to his research into the Tea that made this separation for the twins to be necessary.

"Well," Hatter said, looking his brother over, "this is it."

"Yeah," Connor mumbled, looking at his feet. "If you ever need something from Aboveground, let me know. I'm still your big brother."

Hatter smirked at his little brother, "That's borogrove shit and you know it. Mum told us I was older."

Connor chuckled and said, "I'd best get going if I'm to meet Caterpillar and Turtle at the Rabbit Hole."

Hatter did something that was unheard of between the two brothers. He pulled Connor into a hug.

Connor hugged his twin tightly and said, "Come get me after you've toppled the new Bluddy Behg Hed. Mum and Da would be so proud…"

Hatter nodded. "Of course," he said, pretending to preen.

Connor backed out of the hug, and backed away. "Good luck, Dave."

"You too, Con."

And Connor Hightopp was known no more to Wonderland. At least, for the next ten years. She sighed. It was a shame the twins were splitting up…

—•—•—•—

Connor Temple looked around London and knew something was different. It didn't have the feeling of an anomaly. He sighed as Rex squeaked at him.

—•—•—•—

Hatter smiled in relief. Alice had agreed to let him come with her to her world. His brother's world, though Alice didn't know that. He'd need to tell her soon.

The feelings from the Twin Bond from Connor were less and less powerful with each passing day.

—•—•—•—

Abby poked her head into the living from the loft. "Connor, Stephen called. We have another anomaly."

Connor hid his fear well. "Let me grab my hat." A Temple without a hat was a sin after all!

—•—•—•—

Alice and Hatter smiled at each other as they stood in front of the looking glass, hands clasped together. The technician at their back said, "Now, just remember to breathe," and pushed.

Of course, Hatter forgot to do just that.

—•—•—•—

It was a good thing that Abby was driving. A very good thing, indeed.

Connor felt as if he had forgotten how to breathe. If he'd been driving, they most certainly would have crashed right through the barrier on the right.

—•—•—•—

Hatter finally remembered to take a breath, as Alice grabbed his hand tightly.

Suddenly, something happened neither of them expected at all.

The jerk sideways was enough to make you lose your lunch, the conman decided.

—•—•—•—

"When I meet up with Dave again, I am going to kill him. Slowly and surely. Maybe I can get Stephen to loan me a gun…"Connor mused as his stomach lurched. He never did like the fact that they could feel—in really bad situations—what the other was feeling. Why now?

—•—•—•—

Hatter called over to Alice, "Did it take this long last time?"

She shook her head and yelled back, "No! There's the end though!"

—•—•—•—

Abby pulled into the parking lot she was given the address for.

Cutter and Stephen were standing there, staring at a… "It's the bloody Looking Glass!" Connor said, running up to his team. Luckily no one else had arrived yet.

Cutter glanced over at him and raised an eyebrow as if to say, explain.

Everyone watched as Connor walked over to it. Before he could touch it, Stephen snapped, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. I know where this leads. This is no anomaly," Connor replied.

He had turned his back to the Looking Glass to address his friend, therefore didn't notice the Glass rippling behind him.

"Con—!" Abby yelled.

—•—•—•—

As Alice and Hatter reached the end, Hatter grabbed Alice, wrapping his arms around her as he twisted his body to take the impact.

But the impact wasn't hard concrete like they were expecting.

—•—•—•—

Something hard smashed into Connor that sent him flying forward.

Protecting his face as best he could, he landed with whoever had come out of the Glass on top of him. His voice was muffled as he said, "Git OBB me!" He felt the blood trickle over his hand.

The weight lifted off him as a gasp came from Abby and Claudia. Connor rolled over and accepted the hand extended to help him up. "Here, ma…"

"Dabid!"

"Connor!"

The twins hadn't seen each other in ten years.

The girl who had arrived with the Connor-lookalike muttered, "Well, Toto, I'm sure as hell not in Kansas anymore."

Abby, who had heard her, snickered.

"Temple, what the hell is going on?" Stephen spat. It was quite easy to tell that the man was not happy.

The two Connors turned to Stephen, though one kept glancing at the girl he came with, and the one dressed as Connor said, "I'b sowwy, Stephen. I bent to bell you ebentually."

The newcomer twin said, "Got yourself a job out in the field instead of a lab, eh, Con? Got yourself a girlfriend yet, little bro?"

Abby's jaw dropped. Connor had an older brother?

The others all had looks of shock on their faces that showed the same emotion.

Connor then turned and took his left hand and punched his brother, sending him flying back. "Thab's for doing wabeber the hell you were doobing." He stalked over to Stephen and said, "Gun."

"No." Stephen moved his gun away from Connor's hand. He then asked him, "Connor, what the hell is going on?"

"Con…" the lookalike said as he moved in front of Alice in case his twin had followed in their father's footsteps. He was rubbing his shoulder. "Downal wyth Bluddy Bihg Hed."

The woman he was protecting said, "Hatter, what the hell is going on here?"

Connor turned to face the man named Hatter. "She's gone? She's really gone and Caterpillar put someone on the throne?" The bleeding had stopped due to their faster healing powers, thanks to their aunt.

"Yes. Alice here brought down the whole house of bloody cards. Jack Heart is on the throne." Hatter replied to his brother's question.

"I'm going to ask how many times people asked if she was the one of legend," Connor said, rubbing his left eye. "Jack Heart? We have another Heart on the throne?"

Alice was fuming. "Who the hell are you?"

Connor turned to her. "Connor Temple. Dave here is my twin brother. Don't listen to what he says. I'm older."

"That's still borogrove shit and you know it, Con. Mum told us many times I was older," Hatter said, grinning. "And yeah Jack Heart is on the throne, he was a Resistance insider."

After listening to the two of them, Cutter decided enough was enough. To try to give him time to deal with this, Cutter said, "Let's get back to Home One. I want to know what the hell is going on."

Trying to keep up with the conversation, Alice asked, "Your name is Dave, Hatter?"

Hatter answered her, "I prefer Hatter."

Connor objected, "Only because Da passed the hat onto you."

"Which proves I'm older," Hatter said, as he slang an arm across his twin's shoulder. "So, Con, how's life?" he asked as Connor dragged him to the car he and Abby had arrived in.

Alice interrupted. "Excuse me? Where the hell are we?"

Stephen looked over at her as he answered, "London."

Alice replied a little shocked, "Ho, boy. I'm definitely not in Kansas."

Abby caught Alice's arm. "C'mon, let's get you and your Connor to the flat." The Temple twins were already sitting in the back of the car, as they talked excitedly and motioned using their hands.

Alice climbed into the passenger seat as Abby started the car. Used to living with Connor, she ignored the noises and weird words coming from the back seat. Abby asked, "So, what's your name?"

"Alice. Alice Hamilton. Yours?" Alice asked, happy to have some normality in the madness that had been her life over the past three days.

Abby shook her short blond hair out of her eyes and she glanced at Alice. She had no idea what Connor and his twin brother were talking about, but everything was screaming at her that Alice needed stability. "Abby. Abby Maitland. You don't have a British accent. Where are you from?"

"New York… It's been so hellishly hectic over the past few days…" She gasped. "What day is it?" she asked, grabbing the oh shit bar.

Abby looked over at her, puzzled. "It's the 6th… Why?"

The confused look on Alice's face was enough to prompt the question. "You guys are five hours ahead of New York. It's 8:00 AM here. That means it's 3:00 AM there. I've been missing for 4 hours. Oh, my God, Mom's going to kill me."

Abby took her left hand off the steering wheel. "Don't worry, Alice. We'll just talk to Lester and get him to smooth it over with your government. That way, you'll be here legally and everything will be all right."

There was a brief silence between the two girls and the only noise was from the back of the car.

Abby couldn't contain her curiosity anymore and just asked, "I am curious though… Where were you?"

Alice laughed. It wasn't a happy laugh, or a humorous laugh. It was a sarcastic laugh. "You'd never believe me if I told you."

The blond raised an eyebrow. "I'll believe a lot of things. You wouldn't believe what I see on a daily basis."

Alice decided to just spit it out and see what happened. "Wonderland."

Abby blinked at the word. "In a fictional kids' story?" she asked, disbelief lacing her tone. "I'll buy a lot of shit, but fictional?"

Alice nodded. "Yeah. I didn't believe I was there either at first. And it's nothing like the book. At all." She rolled up the sleeve of her jacket to take a look at the Oyster mark. It was still there, only much fainter than it ever was in Wonderland, even after she started believing in it. "See that? I didn't have a tattoo when I left last night. To get rid of the tattoo, I was told I had to believe in Wonderland. It was starting to fade."

The herpetologist glanced at the mark before shifting her eyes back to the road. "So who's the other Connor person in the back of my car?"

"Hatter. At least, that's what he told me his name was. I saw Jack—my boyfriend at the time—being kidnapped, so I followed and fell through a mirror. Hatter was the third person I met in Wonderland. Agent White, then Ratty, who then 'sold' me to Hatter for Tea." Alice rambled. What with everything that had happened, Alice was a bit surprised she was not insane already.

"Tea? Ratty sold you for some Earl Grey?" Abby asked, once again disbelieving, as she tried to follow the story.

"I wish. For years, The White Rabbit organization has been kidnapping normal people, like you and me. They would brand them, and take them to the Heart's Casino, where they would then drain them of all emotions to make Emotion Tea. The people who were addicted to it were called Tea-Heads," Alice explained. "You'd really have to ask Hatter. He lived through it and sold the stuff, so he could sneak food and things like that to the resistance. Anyway, then Hatter took me to one branch of the Resistance, headed by Dodo—"

"Dodo? As in the dodo bird?" Abby glanced back to Connor, as she remembered the pain he had gone through with the death of his friend due to some dodo birds.

"Yeah. Complete and utter moron too," Alice said, snorting at the memory of the idiot in the Great Library. "So Dodo shot Hatter—surprised me they have guns there. But hey, they had electricity too, so I shouldn't have been too shocked—and the bastard about gave me a heart attack because I thought Hatter had died and turns out the asshole was wearing a Kevlar Vest!"

Abby shook her head. "Wow…And he didn't tell you. Sounds like something Connor would do."

Alice nooded in agreement then continued, "We had to escape on this tiny little boat because there was this guy with a ceramic rabbit head coming after us. The guy gave me the creeps. Then Hatter almost got me eaten by a jabberwock. As we ran away from the jabberwock, we literally fell into a pit with spikes and Charlie—an old, White Knight—found us. We stayed with Charlie that night." Alice paused. "You know what? This is sounding stupider the more I tell you about it."

Abby spared her a glance as she drove and tried to encourage her to continue, "It's actually quite interesting."

"Well, then I got myself captured by Mad March—the rabbit guy—and taken before the queen. Found out that the guy who I thought was named Jack Chase and my boyfriend, was actually Jack Heart—"

Abby interrupted her as she mused out loud, "Which explains why Connor was saying stuff about another Heart being on the throne earlier… I think I get it now."

Alice continued, "My Dad had been missing for years… At least since I was 10."

Abby commented, "Long time."

Alice nodded agreeing, as she answered Abby, "Almost too long. Hatter and Charlie rescued me from the Casino, and we went back to the Kingdom of the Knights, where we had originally met Charlie. Hatter went for to set up a meeting with Caterpillar, who sent Jack to fetch me. I went with them, found out my father was still alive and well. He was dosed with Forgetfulness and Denial which made him forget about Mom and me. Mad March caught us again. He caught Hatter too, because Hatter decided to risk his neck to try and save me. The Queen then had me banished from Wonderland. I escaped and somehow managed to topple the monarchy… Still don't know how."

"Hmm… Normally I wouldn't believe such bullshit, but I think I do believe you," Abby said, giving Alice a half smile.

Alice leaned her head back. "Thanks, Abby. What do you do for a living?"

"I deal with prehistoric animals on a daily basis." Abby deadpanned.

The brunette snorted. "Sounds much more interesting than teaching Karate each day."

Abby smirked as she answered, "Basically we have to make sure that they don't escape and that no one gets hurt from them."

Alice nodded. "Sounds interesting…"

While the girls were talking, Connor and David were talking about all that had happened.

"So," Connor whispered, "she's out of power? And Jack Heart was a Resistance member? That-that's almost just too much to believe…"

Hatter nodded. "Tell me a bit about your life here, mate. I mean, pretty blonde in the front of this contraption."

"Car, Dave. Car. And I'm not dating Abby. What about you and that Alice bird? What is it with our family and women named Alice?" Connor asked, shaking his head. "Or A names all together. Da and Mum. Grandda Andrew and Grandmum Abigail," he said, referring to their long dead grandparents on their Da's side of the family. They died when the Jabberwock attacked a celebration held for the White Queen. "So how'd you meet this Alice?"

"You tell me what the bloody hell your job is, and why we came out wyth bluddy guns pointed at us?" Hatter asked, a bit of Outlandish slipping in.

"Remember the old stories about Da murdering Time for Mum? Well, that's basically what's happening here. Time here is a constant. Someone is ripping it apart, bit by bit. One of my best friends died in my arms last month. I left to escape death and destruction, David. And I've known Tom since I moved here." Connor told his brother, beseeching him to understand.

Hatter put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Connor." He knew his brother had none of the Hightopp stomach for the darker side of life as he and their Da did. Neither of them liked it, but they dealt with it.

"This parasite killed Tom and there was nothing I could do about it. He's why I'm still on the team. Plus, Cutter's making me," Connor said, sarcasm lacing his voice on his last few words.

Hatter looked at his brother. "Con, if you guys need help, I'm here for you."

Connor nodded, distracted.

Everyone in the automobile was silent as Abby parked it. She said, "Let's go inside and get everyone settled."

"Beware," Connor said, "It's a bit…warm…in there."

Remember to review please. It makes an insecure author happy and willing to post next week instead of dreading it.