A/N:

Well…uh…

This was not planned.

This was not planned. At all.

In case you didn't realize, this is a prequel to my earlier story "I Fell Down", which details Margaret's reaction to hearing her daughter talk about her long lost sister, Alice. You should read that, either before or after you read this. I originally planned for that to be a stand alone oneshot, but after your guys's many comments, the plot bunnies came a hopping. Anyway, I wrote this and I hope its good…hope being the key word. Many apologies for this to take months to be put up. Enjoy!

Also, since I've just started using to publish stories, if anyone could help me with technical stuff, that'd be great.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

Follow Me Down

"Puppy! Here puppy puppy puppy!"

Seven year old Mary Alice Manchester tore through the family gardens, chasing the small hound dog puppy that had wandered into her garden the day before. She'd been quite taken by him and had begged her mother to allow for her to be allowed to keep him as a pet. Her mother had finally relented and agreed, but now as Mary attempted to bring him inside he'd run away from her. It was very...odd.

"Puppy! Come back here puppy!" she called again, a frustrated frown covering her face. The puppy seemed to slow down and for one brief second she could've sworn he turned around and looked at her, then he continued bounding through the garden, before sliding rather clumsily under a bush and disappeared. Mary frowned at this, but crunched down just in time to see him wiggle out through a rather large hole in the fence, which seemed to be caused by two broken boards. Mary frowned.

On one hand, she could burst into tears and run back to the house, where she could quickly spill out her story and beg her mother to let a gardener to go after the puppy. But that was something six year old Mary would do. Seven year old Mary was very grown up and wanted to go after the puppy herself. Somehow she slid under the fence (she wasn't quite sure exactly how), not noticing that her bow got tangled on the fence until she was all the way through and had to yank it out of her dark brown curls or that her pinafore became frightfully soiled by the mud from last night's rain until she went to tuck the ribbon away in a pocket. Oh well. It was a dress that she had nearly grown out of and was certainty not one of her "Tea Party at Grandmum's" dresses. If she'd gotten even a spot on one of those she would've not had supper that night...

Now, where was that annoying little dog? Mary spun around several times before her eyes landed on her puppy sniffing curiously around what appeared to be a rather large rabbit hole, hidden within the roots of a tree. She gave a great sigh of relief and went after him.

"Puppy puppy puppy…oof!"

Her foot caught on something and she tumbled head first into the hole, shrieking a little bit in surprise. She hoped her puppy hadn't fallen either…

Mary glanced down and that was when she realized that she couldn't see the bottom of the rabbit hole. She was just falling and falling and falling…and was that furniture?

Mary couldn't help it that time. She screamed, a loud, shrill sound that reverberated off of all of the chairs and tables and bookcases sticking out from the walls. A piano crashed down suddenly, awfully close to her, much to close for comfort. She screamed again, but the piano just merrily crashed and banged its keys a bit before flying up.

Mary threw up her arms to protect her face, but all that movement did was make it impossible for her to see and send her tumbling head over heels. She continued falling, but she was too scared to remove the arms from her head. For one moment her back hit something hard and her moment of rejoicing over being safe was killed before it even began as whatever she had landed on shattered into a ton of pieces as she flew through.

Finally, finally, she landed on a nice solid floor and she sat up slowly. She had only a moment to think Why is my hair standing on end? Before she fell again and hit the floor below her with an almighty thud.

She lay still for another few moments. Her entire body felt bruised. Battered, and sore. Slowly she picked herself and affirmed that nothing was hurting…that much. No broken bones, thank goodness.

Mary brushed herself off a bit and brushed her now very untidy curls out of her face and gazed around at the room she was in.

It was completely empty, except for probably more than a dozen doors around the walls. Carefully, she walked up to each and tried the handles, but none of them opened.

Mary spun away from the last door and saw….a shiny glass table that had most certainly not been there a moment before…

She slowly walked over to it and noted that the only thing on the table was a small silver key. She picked it up, examined it. It appeared to be a key, much like the ones in her house. She went around the room, trying it in each door. None of the doors opened.

She sighed as she stopped in front of a long red curtain. She stood there for a few moments, wondering how on earth she was going to get out of this place. Then, she noticed something. There was only one curtain in the whole room, which was really odd. She drew it aside slowly, as it was fairly heavy and saw nothing….until she glanced down and saw a small door nestled against the wall. She bent down and leveled her face with the door and slid the key into the lock. Of course it fit. And turned. And the little door swung open.

Outside was the loveliest little garden. There were all sorts of colorful flowers and a nice, well beaten path. In the distance she thought she heard a girl laugh.

But there was no chance of her getting through the door. Her dollhouse dolls could walk through perhaps, but she doubted even her big doll Juliet would be able to fit. If she could, it'd be a tight squeeze.

Mary sat back on her heels. She took the key from the door and put it in her pocket, then turned around. Maybe there'd be another key on the table and she could use it to open up a different door.

Unfortunately, there wasn't. Instead, there was a small bottle labeled "Drink Me".

Mary lifted up the bottle and turned it around to see if there was anything else written on it. There wasn't. And so, Mary lifted up the bottle and took a long drink. It was only after she had set the bottle down and went into a coughing and choking fit that she realized that perhaps drinking out of an almost completely unlabeled bottle probably wasn't the wisest thing to do.

And…was the table growing? And why were her clothes growing so loose?

Mary realized a second after her dress covered her that she was shrinking. She panicked for a moment, then realized that she could now fit through the door. She grew excited, then realized that she had no idea where she put the key. After a moment of thinking she remembered putting the key in her pinafore, but looking at the mass of cloth that was her dress, she had no idea where her pinafore was, much less pulling it apart in order to retrieve the key. She sat down angrily under the table, only to glance over and realize that next to her was a little box with a cake inside of it, which was labeled "Eat Me".

Well if the drink had made her shrink, then what would the cake do? Mary frowned and lifted out the cake. She nibbled off just a corner and instantly shot up. Not a ton, she was no where near her normal height. However she could properly get to her key now and she did so holding it in her hand. Now, if she could just shrink again…she remembered the bottle and grasped wildly for it on the table. She couldn't quite see what she was doing, which resulted in her knocking the bottle off the table. It hit the ground and although the bottle didn't break, quite a bit of the contents spilled onto the ground. She scrambled for the bottle, which she could barely lift it was so heavy now, and took a drink from it. It still tasted just as badly as before. She shrunk back down, the key still in hand and was ready to leave the room of doors, when it occurred to her that she wasn't wearing anything. She grew a bit upset at this, then realized that she might be able to tie some strips of cloth from her petticoat around herself to improvise as a dress. She did so, fumbling a bit with the knots.

Within moments Mary was at the door and she slowly put the key into the lock and stepped out. She gasped. The garden was just as beautiful if not more so then it had seemed through the keyhole.

A whoosh sort of sound occurred behind her and she turned around to see the door behind her disappear. Well, now she couldn't get back inside, although she wasn't quite sure how she'd get to the top of the rabbit hole. Perhaps she could've climbed…

Well, no matter. There was no longer a door, but there was a long winding garden path in front of her for her to explore.

Mary set off down the path slowly, gazing around her as she walked. There were many brightly colored flowers surrounding her and they all had faces. Very pretty faces, but they were still faces and she found them a bit..scary. She moved slowly down the path and spun around slowly. She could've sworn she'd heard whispering…

But that was silly. Flowers couldn't talk.

But could they…she would've never thought that she could fall down a rabbit hole and shrink and grow and find flowers with faces!

Up ahead she heard the sound of someone laughing again and the voice of a girl about her age speaking, although she couldn't quite make out the words. Mary slipped behind a tall stalk of grass and stared at the girl.

Mary couldn't see much of the girl besides a very fluffy and lacey white dress as the girl leaned over and spoke to a flower.

Wait. Spoke to a flower? That was silly. Flowers can't…

Mary inched forward a little more and could now make out the words a bit.

"…and the weeds have been particularly ferocious right now. Perhaps she can send someone to help out?"

"Of course. I'll ask Mama for you."

"Thank you Princess Lily."

"You're welcome rose!" The girl stood up and brushed the dirt off her dress and swung to pick up something behind her and noticed Mary.

"Oh. Hello," she said sweetly, kneeling down again, "Who are you?"

"I'm Mary…Mary Manchester."

The girl smiled. "I'm Lily. Princess Lily, but you can call me Lily." Her loose white blonde hair spun about in the breeze and her big pale blue eyes sparkled. "I'm eight. How old are you?"

"Seven," Mary replied.

"Then we're almost the same age!" Lily said with a big smile, sitting back on her feet, "But…you're so small…"

Mary nodded. "I drank something and it made me shrink."

Lily nodded. "Pishavler. You need Upelkuchen."

"Upulwhat?"

"Upelkuchen? It's like cake. It makes you grow."

"Oh…" Mary nodded, "I've had some of that before."

Lilly frowned a bit. "I don't have any on me, but I'm going to one of Mr. Tarrant's tea parties. He should have some on him and anyway, the tea parties are always the best!"

Mary smiled. "Always?"

Lily nodded. "Always."

She held out her hand and Mary stepped up onto it. She carefully placed Mary into her basket. "I'll try to not shake it to much. Hold on."

Mary held tightly onto the side of the basket. Lily picked it up slowly and walked off. Mary didn't see much, just flashes of grass and flowers and at one point a woodsy path. Soon she felt the basket being sat down on something and heard Lily cry out "Thackery!"

Something whizzed overhead and crashed loudly against what sounded like a tree. Mary peeped out of the basket to seeing a giant hare and a rather large mouse running across a table heavily laden with tea pots, cups, and several plates of cakes. The hare chucked a scone at Lily, who ducked easily as though she'd done this many times before.

"Mally where's Mr. Tarrant?" Lily asked, picking the basket up yet again.

"In 'is 'ouse o course," answered the mouse. Mally, Mary instantly tried to commit to memory. That's make Thackery the hare.

"Thanks Mally!" Lily chirped, before making her way to the other side of the clearing, where a neat pretty little cottage stood. Lily knocked promptly on the door and a voice called out, "Come in!". She pushed it open and stepped inside.

Mary peeped out of the basket in time to see a man with very bright orange hair working in a kitchen. Teakettles were whistling and the entire place seemed to be covered in flour.

"Hello Mr. Tarrant," Lily said happily.

"Hello Silly Lilly," he said with a large gap toothed smile, "Where's your mother and Alice?"

"They're going to be a little bit late. I came early though. I don't want to be naughty."

"Of course you didn't want to be late. You had an important date," the man brightened suddenly, "Have I made a rhyme?"

"You have," Lilly laughed and clapped her hands, then grew serious. "Mr. Tarrant?"

"Yes?" he answered, setting a plate of cookies down on the table along with the last couple of tea kettles that had been sitting on the stove.

"Do you have any upelkuchen handy?"

He nodded. "I must with my Alice. She's always too small..or to tall. She's much too curious." He said all of this very proudly, as though he wanted this Alice to be curious. Odd. At home, Mary's mother would reprimand her whenever she was being too adventurous. "Why Lilly?"

Lilly lifted Mary out of the basket gently and set her on the table and said proudly, "I met her on my way here. I think she had a bit too much pishavler, don't you think?"

"My name's Mary," Mary piped up.

Mr. Tarrant swept of his hat gallantly and nodded at her. "It is a pleasure to meet you laddie. Silly Lilly, find the upelkuchen. It should be in the cupboard. Unless it's decided it wished to move out of the cupboard, in which you'll have to search all of the other cupboards and if it's not there it might be in the pantry, but if it's not it might've run off with the pink sugar, I couldn't find it…"

"Mr. Tarrant!" Lilly cried. The man stopped, his eyes fading back to a green color as he squeaked, "I'm fine. Thank you."

He then turned to Mary and lightly scooped her up. "Come with me. You must have a proper outfit for tea."

He carried her into a room a little ways off from the kitchen and set her down on a table. He quickly began to dash around tugging several bolts off cloth from the walls and setting them out.

"What color would you like your dress? Blue, green, purple, red, yellow? What kind of sleeves? Puffed? Straight? Petticoats? One? Two? Five? Ten? Ribbons? Ruffles?" His eyes were turning red and Mary stared at him, mouth agape, "Beads? Bows? Buttons?"

"Mr. Tarrant!" Mary finally cried, remembering that was how Lilly had snapped out of him out of this odd madness before. He stopped and squeaked out another "Thank you," before turning back to the table with all of the materials laid out on it.

Mary called over. "I like the color purple."

There was no answer to that except for the sound of a snip of scissors and rustles of cloth, broken by the sound of something being quickly being sewn together.

Lilly burst in holding a slice of cake and carrying a blanket. "Here's the upelkuchen!" she called.

Mr. Tarrant nodded. "Give it to Mary laddie."

. Lilly smiled and handed Mary the small bit of cake. "Only eat a little bit," she cautioned.

Mary took a couple small nibbles and shot up. She was still a tad short, so she took another tiny nibble and found herself at her proper height again. Lilly smiled happily and handed Mary the blanket, which Mary quickly wrapped herself in.

"We're almost the same height!" Lilly said happily.

Mary nodded. The top of her head was level with Lilly's chin, and while she personally believed that made Lily a lot taller than her, she pretended to agree.

Mr. Tarrant spun around and handed a pile of cloth to Lily and instructed her to help Mary get dressed. Lily did as soon as he left the room, quickly sorting through the pile and helping Mary with the few ties and buttons.

Mary twirled around, her skirts flying out behind her. The base of the dress was dark purple and over it was a thin see through layer with flower designs on it. The sleeves were puffed at the shoulder and gathered with pretty lighter purple ribbons and her skirt was full a puffed out from a couple of petticoats sewn into the waist. Mr. Tarrant had also constructed her slippers of some kind (she wasn't quite a sure how, but she decided to let the matter slide) and she'd slipped them on. They were much more comfortable than her usual shoes back home.

Lily helped her tie her hair with a wide ribbon and the two skipped outside hand in hand back to the table.

The mouse and hare, Mally and Thackery, Mary remembered, were still at the table, now seated on a couple of stools, looking hungrily at the tea and cakes that were laid out on the table. Mr. Tarrant was putting on a record on the victrola, which began to spew out some very pretty music that seemed to have no rhyme or reason to it. Mary settled down on a chair next to Lilly.

"Who are you?" Mally asked, a bit rudely.

"I'm Mary," Mary responded.

"She looks like Alice!" the hare chirped, before coming transfixed by the plate in front of him. "Plate."

"I look like who?" Mary asked.

"Ms. Alice," Lilly chimed in, "Mr. Tarrant's wife."

"Really?" Mary said.

"Yes. She's coming with my Mama. They should be here any minute."

Mary nodded and selected a cookie and began to nibble it thoughtfully. Lilly mirrored her actions. Suddenly, something occurred to Mary.

"My middle name is Alice!" she exclaimed.

"It is?" Lilly inquired.

"Yes," Mary said, unsure as to why she hadn't remembered this before, "I'm named after my Aunt Alice. She disappeared before I was born. She…"

"Hello everyone," came a dreamy voice. Mary turned to see a woman dressed in a white puffy dress walk gracefully down the path, her arm linked with another woman dressed in blue. Judging from the woman in white's white hair, that must be Lilly's mother, a suspicion that was confirmed by Lilly jumping off her stool and with a cry of "Mama!" rushing to her. The woman in white unhooked her arm from the woman in blue, who must be Alice, and gave her daughter a hug. Lilly instantly started chattering about the flowers she'd spoken to on her way to Mr. Tarrant's house as her mother listened intently. Alice made her way over to Mr. Tarrant and gave him a quick kiss, earning a chortle of disgust from Mally and a thrown spoon from Thackery. Mary watched her intently, trying to figure out why she looked so familiar.

Then Alice turned to smile at Mary and Mary finally realized.

This Alice looked just like her Aunt Alice! The one who'd disappeared so long ago! Mary knew what she looked like because there was a portrait hanging in the room Mary always slept in whenever she stayed at Grandmum's. And…and…and…

Alice smiled at her. "What's your name?"

Mary smiled at her proudly. "Mary Alice Manchester!" she chirped, watching as Alice's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. Alice swallowed and shut her mouth tightly and said softly.

"Mary's a very pretty name."

Mary nodded. "I'm named after my7 Aunt Alice. She disappeared a long time ago. Before I was born."

"Really?" said Alice curiously, "How did she?"

Mary shrugged. "I don't know. Mama doesn't like to talk about her much. It makes her sad."

"And your mother's name is…?"

"Margaret," Mary said, "Margaret Manchester."

Alice didn't respond to that, she just stared at the girl in front of her, trying to take her all in. Mary knew she was noticing her eyes and tangled curls, inherited from her mother, with her dark hair and pale complexion, what had been labeled as her Grandmum's nose and the sweet smile which had once been called "Alice's".

Mr. Tarrant seemed to be studying her as well. "She looks just like you did, sweetling, when you first came to Underland."

"She does," Alice whispered as well.

Mary was aware that everyone seemed to be watching this little tableau very interestingly and so she finally asked, "Are you my Aunt Alice?"

Alice nodded. "I…I believe I am."

Mary couldn't resist. She ran over and hugged her Aunt Alice as tightly as possible. Aunt Alice returned her embrace and ruffled her hair lightly with a smile.

"I see you've followed me down," she said with a soft chuckle, "And how do you like Underland?"

"It's Wonderful!" Mary said, "It's a Wonderland!"

She didn't quite understand the laughter that followed, but the tea party was definitely the best one ever.