I've had this story languishing in my hard drive for months now—I started writing it as an alternate ending to the series and a sequel to 'Keeping Warm', but I've been unsure where to go with it. I'm still not 100% sure where the ending is gonna go, but the story demands to be shared.

This story starts immediately after the end of 'Keeping Warm'—you'll probably have to read that story to understand this one. The rating will likely go up to M, but for the time being it's a rather tame T rating.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Alice' or any of the characters or themes therein. No money is being made from this story, at least not that I'll declare on my income tax.

o…o

Hatter is gone before she wakes up. She's alone, still naked but for her boots, wrapped in her coat and the wool blanket by the doused fire. For a few seconds upon waking up, still a little foggy and fuzzy from sleep and not quite lucid yet, she can't remember how she came to be naked in the blanket. Then she feels the scrapes on her thighs from his stubble and the memory comes back all at once.

Alice sighs softly, stretching her arms over her head.

"Ah, JustAlice awakens!" Charlie's voice comes from somewhere off across the fire pit.

She holds her coat up snug to her chest, even though she knows the blanket more than covers her. Does Charlie know what happened? They didn't think he'd woken up the night before but that doesn't mean he didn't.

"I have for you some toasted bread and jubjub eggs for breakfast," the old knight says cheerfully. "Your vassal—the Hatter—is gone to the city. Left at dawn. He told me to tell you not to worry."

From where the man is standing, he must be able to tell that she's not wearing anything under the heavy blanket but he either doesn't realize what it means or is far too chivalrous and pretends not to notice. Either way, he doesn't mention it and appears completely oblivious to her… activities… the previous night with Hatter.

"And your things are dry, my lady Alice," he says with a dramatic bow, gesturing grandly to the little pile of blue and red. "I shall leave you in peace, but do not stray. The Harbinger said to make certain you stay within the Kingdom. I shall return—the traps must be set for the bandersnatch!" And off he goes with a shovel over his shoulder, probably intent on digging another huge pit and looking ridiculously cheerful and singing and babbling, leaving her alone to dress in private.

For a few minutes, Alice doesn't move, in peace and quiet again and savouring the memories of last night with a giddy little smile on her face. Hatter's hands, his mouth—the sexy little purring noise he made when he made her squirm, the equally sexy moans whenever she made him squirm.

They never did get around to the sex. She'd fallen asleep. She's going to have to fix that when he gets back.

When he gets back. She refuses to think that he might not, even though deep in the back of her mind she knows it's a distinct possibility. She remembers Dodo's threat to him—he'll have every member of the Resistance hunting Hatter down. He tried to assure her that Dodo was just one arm of it, that the other Resistance members will be willing to help, especially if he can get word to Caterpillar. Whoever Caterpillar is. She only hopes he's not smoking a hookah.

He is going to be safe and he is going to come back.

Normally, this would probably disgust her—she's gotten way too attached, way too fast. She thought her relationship with Jack moved quickly in six weeks, but she's known Hatter for a few days and already she might well be falling for him.

How sappy.

She trails her hands down her body, mimicking the path Hatter's took the night before. This is patently the wrong time and place to relive last night, but it's awfully tempting. Thinking about it makes the excitement burn in her abdomen, hot and fast like a roadside flare. Then the hand stops when she feels something on her stomach; she picks it up and brings it out from under the blanket to see what it is.

Long stalks of grass have been braided together and then twisted into a little heart shape.

She holds it in her palm and stares at it for several long moments. Hatter left it there for her to find so she'd know he was thinking of her. It shouldn't make her feel all teary because Alice isn't the kind of girl who cries, ever, at all, over anything. But it does. For some reason, it makes a little lump come up in her throat.

She finds her underwear and her bra and hops around as she gets dressed. Her clothes smell smoky, like the campfire. Her father's watch is still in her dress pocket. She tucks Hatter's little grass heart into the other pocket and tries to find something to occupy her time until he comes back.

The hours wear on. And on. And on.

There's only so much time she can pass talking to Charlie, and after he reveals to her what must be his deepest, darkest secret—that he is, in fact, not a knight at all but a squire who ran in fear and hid and survived the massacre because of that—he goes sullen and quiet and wanders off into the forest alone. He isn't singing.

She sits by the fire, her father's watch in one hand and Hatter's grass heart in the other, staring at them without really seeing either of them.

Her father is here, he has to be—there's no other conceivable way for Jack to have this watch. Or else, he was here, once. So where is he? What's become of him? Is he one of the sedated Oysters in the game rooms, putting out emotions for the Queen? Is he a prisoner, being kept in some dungeons somewhere? Jack has proven untrustworthy at best and at worst deliberately deceitful, so exactly how is she supposed to trust that he was telling the truth when he said 'he's here'?

Jack lied about everything, even his name, but the fact remains that Robert Hamilton was, at one point, in Wonderland and somehow lost his watch. How Jack came to have it remains a mystery. Maybe her father isn't even here at all and he just wants to use the watch and the spectre of her missing father as a bargaining chip against her just as she wants to use the Stone of Wonderland as a bargaining chip against the Queen. To manipulate her.

And maybe her father is here, and Jack wants to use that as his bait.

She doesn't want to trust what Jack said, but she's looked for her father—and looked for answers—for too long to let this lead slide. At the very least, the answers she needs are in the Casino, even if Robert himself isn't. She can't not give it a try, no matter how much she wants to strangle Jack to death the next time she sees him. Hatter will get the Resistance leader to help her and a condition of her turning the Stone over is that they will help her find her father.

Hatter…

She smiles ever so slightly as she runs her fingers over the twisted grass heart in her hand, but the smile quickly wavers and droops. She's getting very attached to that man. It might have something to do with the fact that they very nearly had sex last night—that they did everything but, that they would have if she didn't fall asleep—but part of her thinks she might be falling in love. He's the least-likely candidate to earn her trust but he has.

She checks the sun's position but she doesn't know how to tell time that way. If the sun here rises in the east and sets in the west—which it may well not do, she really has no idea—then it might be early afternoon by now. Charlie said Hatter left at dawn. That's an awfully long time. Can it take that long to get back to the city and get a message passed along? To know if the Resistance is willing to help?

She tries not to get scared but she can't help it. If Hatter fails, or worse—oh god, Hatter, they said they'd have you killed if they found you!—then what's to become of her? Without Hatter she only has bonkers Charlie and as adept as he is at staying alive in the forest, he's not likely going to be any good to get her home. The Resistance want to kill her just as badly as they want to kill Hatter, and the Hearts… the Hearts will do even worse to her. She could be stuck here for a long time, maybe even forever.

Charlie comes back, singing gleefully. He puts on a pot of some kind of stew and talks nonsense at her and interrupts her thoughts. When she gets up to go somewhere else so she can think, he stops her.

"JustAlice, the Harbinger told me to keep my eye on you—you cannot go into the forest alone, you'll get lost."

"I'll be all right, Charlie," she says. "I just need to think."

"You can't think here?" He asks.

No, she can't think here—she needs to keep her body occupied walking or something so her mind will work. "I'll be fine," she says again, but Charlie isn't hearing of it and tells her to stay put and think sitting still.

And then he goes to his hammock and falls asleep almost immediately and she gets up and makes her way up the hill to a cliff that overlooks the ruins of the kingdom.

She's not sure how long she's there for. Her mind wanders into all the possible outcomes to her current situation, and few of them are good. What if the Resistance help her and they still fail—her, the whole Resistance, Hatter, Charlie, everyone—and the Queen is unstoppable? What if the Resistance won't help her? How will she survive here in this place, this freakish Wonderland? The mark on her arm betrays her as an Oyster—she can't hide it forever, can she?

Will she ever get home? The Resistance being willing to help is no automatic guarantee that she'll be able to get home. It's not a guarantee that they'll be able to get to the Looking Glass, when Hatter told her it was the most heavily-guarded place in Wonderland. How will she explain her absence to her mother—her mom is probably losing her mind with worry right now. It's not as if she can just turn up days later with a story about how Wonderland really exists; if she did that she'd end up wearing a straight jacket in a padded cell.

Will Hatter be okay? What if Hatter was playing her? What if her shit judgment for men has reared its ugly head again and Hatter was just using her? What if he planned on going into the city and giving her up to the Resistance, or what if he just disappeared and never came back?

But no… that can't be it.

She hears footsteps in the dry grass coming up the hill and she breaks out of her reverie, turning to see who's coming. She isn't scared and doesn't adopt a defensive pose like she would normally do—it can only be one of two people coming and neither of them would hurt her.

She hears the voice before she can see who it is.

"It's good news," Hatter says. "The Resistance want to help. They're sending a special agent who'll take us to Caterpillar."

She turns and she smiles, a wave of relief washing over her. She wants to run over and leap up and hug him but her feet stay rooted to the spot. He's smiling, but he looks just as unsure of himself as she feels—like he's not sure where they stand with each other after what happened last night.

"Whew. That's… that's quite a steep hill."

She stares at him, right through him almost, for a long time. "I was beginning to think you weren't coming back," she admits.

He raises his eyebrows. "You still don't trust me?"

"That's not it," she says. "You know that's not it. I was afraid…" she trails off, afraid of saying it.

"Hey, c'mon. Give me a little credit, yeah?" He says, coming to stand behind her, his hands on her shoulders and his cheek resting against her hair. She thinks she can feel him kiss her head and she leans back against him as she lets out a shaky breath. "I haven't survived this long without knowing a thing or two about saving my own butt."

Despite herself, she giggles. "It's a butt worth saving."

He laughs, too, and she turns around and wraps her arms around him, burying her face against his chest. He's reassuringly solid. After a second's hesitation, he wraps his arms around her, strokes her back, and kisses her forehead.

"S'all right, you know," he says.

"I know. It's just a lot to deal with."

He kisses the top of her head and lets his lips linger in her hair.

"How soon 'til the agent gets here?" She asks.

"Those guys can move pretty fast when they have to—could be any time." Then he leans back so he can fix her with a knee-weakening crooked smile that goes all the way up to his eyes, all mischief and dirty little promises. "Why, did you have… plans?"

The emphasis he puts on the word coupled with the look he gives her tells her exactly what he means by that.

"I might have," she says, giving him a grin of her own. The thought of immediately jumping on Hatter and savaging him had crossed her mind, but she can't be sure they'll have the time.

"Dirty thoughts, my Alice?"

Instead of answering, she stands taller and kisses him. She's wanted to do that since he climbed the hill. She pulls him close and flush against her, one hand in his hair and the other around his back under his jacket with a fistful of his shirt. He holds her tight, just as desperate for reassurance as she is and both of them relieved and glad that the other doesn't regret the previous night.

They break the kiss and stand in silence, still holding onto each other.

She notices him looking out at the city below them, the ruins of what's left of a once-great kingdom, and she has a feeling she knows what she's thinking.

"You're going to join them, aren't you—the Resistance? Fight alongside them?"

"I have to try," he says. "As Dodo said, I've been living my life playing both sides of the court. Was the only way I could stay alive. I let the Hearts think I was working for them, meanwhile I fed their enemies. Those days are over." He steps away from her and goes to the edge of the cliff, looking down and then back at her. "Seeing this great city, and what's become of it… to be honest, it's a wakeup call."

She's not sure how she feels about that, Hatter fighting for the Resistance, even though she knows she has no right to be apprehensive because Hatter is a big boy and can do whatever he likes. His life up until now has been all danger, constantly looking over his shoulder, and he's been wary enough—with reason to be—to wear a bulletproof vest. Joining the Resistance won't make his life any more dangerous than it's already been, but the idea of him being a soldier amongst those trying to overthrow the Queen scares her. He could be hurt or killed. Or worse.

But he wants to do this. He feels like it's worth fighting for, she realizes—for the first time in his life he's found something worth fighting for. Hope. Not just survival, getting from one day to another, but real hope. And she can't stop him from fighting for something just because she cares for him and she's afraid he'll get hurt.

He turns back around and starts to head down the hill. He holds out a hand to her.

"C'mon," he says. "Charlie's cooking something or other in a big stew pot. No sense in us goin' hungry while we wait for the agent."

Her stomach rumbles—she hasn't realized she's hungry until now—and she takes his hand so they can go back to the camp. Before he starts walking, he takes her hand to his lips and ever so softly brushes her fingers with a kiss. She feels herself blush.

"Did you find what I left you this morning?" He asks as he lets her pass him.

Alice nods.

"Good."

They need to concentrate on their footing down the hill—it's all big huge rocks and knobbly sticking-up tree roots and neither of them wants to faceplant in the dirt right now. But he must notice something unusual about her silence because once they're back on level ground he asks her what's wrong.

Her normal M.O. for that kind of question is to lie through her teeth, but she doesn't want to lie. Not to Hatter. Not about this. It scares her too much and she needs to know if he's thought about it, too, and what—if anything—can be done.

"What'll I do," she whispers, "if I get stuck here?"

They both stop and he comes to stand in front of her, holding her gently by the shoulders. His eyes are soft and his voice is low and he's all sincerity when he answers her.

"Then I'll make sure you're okay."

There's no hesitation. He's serious, and for the first time in her life Alice believes what a man tells her.

He leans in and kisses her cheek. "I think your luck's finally changing."

She cranes her neck and tilts her head to kiss him and their lips have just barely touched when a familiar voice interrupts them.

"That's right, it is."

And there's Jack, immaculate in a suit and tie and holding a sword, and Hatter pushes her behind him and stands between them, prepared to put himself in potential harm's way to keep her safe even though by now he knows she can fight just as hard as anyone.

"Hello, Alice," he says, his voice oily and smooth and so cocksure she wants to slap him. She used to think his accent was sexy, but now it just sounds too polished, a carefully-put-together mask just like everything else about him. "Am I interrupting anything?"

Yes—yes he is! But more than being frustrated at having a kiss with Hatter interrupted, her mind starts reeling because Jack is here and she doesn't know how he got here and whether or not he's brought the entire Heart's Casino with him in order to drag her to the Memory Room and torture her into giving up the ring. Her mind goes in a hundred different directions and tries to figure out a hundred different ways out of this situation and none of them are panning out.

Charlie is babbling in the background, hog-tied in his long johns.

"I know what you're thinking—how could he sneak up on me, and in my own manor of all places?"

They ignore him.

Hatter sees the sword in the Prince's hand and he grabs the nearest thing he can find that could be used as a weapon: a branch. It's a noble gesture, in its own right, because he wants to protect her, but a dead stick against a sword is a decidedly one-sided fight

"You think you can fight me with that?" Jack asks, smirking.

"I'm not an old man," he counters.

"Oi!" Charlie yells from his position on the ground.

"What, do you think I'm not well-trained in the art of swordplay?" The Prince asks. He's using that condescending 'poor-little-peasant' tone he sometimes used on her, she realizes, when she found herself hopelessly outclassed by him in New York. What a jerk.

"Just 'cos I'm not in a suit doesn't mean I don't know the rules of a duel," Hatter growls back. "You think too high of yourself, Jack Heart."

Neither of them is moving, content with throwing insults back and forth at one another, but the last thing they need right now is bloodshed. They're in enough trouble with the Hearts as it is, and they don't need to make it worse by killing the Prince, no matter how much she wants to see him suffer. They stare each other down like dogs about to fight and Alice can't take this anymore.

"Hey, look!" She snaps, stomping down the hill to come stand between them, her arms outstretched, prepared to hold them both back from each other with her bare hands if it should come to that—but it probably won't. "The two of you stop your stupid little dick-waving competition right now!" She commands.

Both of them break their staring competition to look at her. Jack's expression is confused; Hatter's is amused.

"No one is fighting anyone here unless it's me—and I'm a black belt, remember?"

"This is about honour, Alice," Jack says.

Just what the hell is he playing at? It's not cute, it's not sweet, it's just downright infuriating.

"Oh for crying out fucking loud!" She yells in exasperation. "Give me those!" She grabs Jack's hand and pries the sword from his grip and snatches the branch away from Hatter and throws them off somewhere behind her.

Jack gives a smirk again and this time it's directed at Hatter; he seems to think she's taken their penis-allegories away to protect him from Hatter. The urge to ball-kick someone has never been so strong.

"Who's your friend, Alice?"

"Why d'you care?" She spits back.

Clearly this isn't the answer he's expecting and his façade falters for a second before he puts that cocky look back on his face again.

"You two looked pretty friendly there."

Anger boils up in her stomach, fizzles over her skin like an uncomfortable itchy sweater. She takes a step forward, her fists clenched; behind her, Hatter comes forward to grab her hand and stop her, because he knows she wants to go over there and beat Jack's too-perfect face into asymmetry. The Prince's eyes flicker to their joined hands before he goes back to eyeing her suspiciously.

"It's none of your fucking business!" She yells. "Why—you jealous, Jack?"

"A little."

She snorts and she doesn't care how unsexy that sounds. "Fuck you," she says flatly. "Just… fuck. You!" She can't come up with any better words than that because her brain isn't working properly. "You're engaged. To a Duchess. And you lied to me about it. You've got no right to be jealous or play victim."

"You know that was just an act," he says smoothly.

"No," she hisses. "No, I don't."

He stares at them a second longer, clearly curious, but he strides away rather than think about it.

"Come, I've brought you a horse. Let's get out of here."

"Hey! She's not going anywhere with you!" Hatter calls, following him, by now itching for a fight; his right hand is twitching, clenching and unclenching.

"You know she can't stay here."

"She's not going anywhere with you!"

"Will the two of you just shut up?" She hisses. "And stop talking about me like I can't make any decisions for myself."

She grabs Hatter's wrist to stop him walking after Jack.

"I need to know about my dad," she says softly. The Prince's back is turned so she reaches up to rest her hand on Hatter's cheek; he meets her eyes questioningly at first, and then he nods, understanding. She doesn't want to trust Jack but Jack has to know something about her father and she has to know what happened.

He puts his hand over hers, turns his head to the side, and presses a kiss to her palm. She closes her eyes and lets herself savour it for a few seconds before she turns her attention back to Jack, but she's still got Hatter by the wrist and she doesn't want to let go.

"Is he here?" She asks—demands.

"Yes. And if you'll come with me, I'll take you to him."

And at that she falters. She shouldn't trust him and she doesn't want to trust him, but the cards are stacked in his favour simply because he had her father's watch. Robert never took that watch off, ever; if Jack had it, then that meant her father was in Wonderland.

Her voice comes soft and small and childlike.

"Really?"

Hatter clenches her hand tight, narrows his eyes, shakes his head—he's skeptical. He's not buying this.

Jack explains, tells them he's a Resistance insider, and against her will Alice hangs on his words. Her father is here and he's alive after all this time and she would give anything to see him again—absolutely anything.

But Hatter isn't easily convinced.

"He's lying, Alice! He just wants the ring!" He says. He's determined to stop her from going with him, though whether it's out of jealousy or genuine concern for her or a mix of both she's not sure.

Jack and Hatter argue again and Alice puts her head in her hands, trying to tune them out. This is a lot to process and again they're talking about her like she isn't there or can't answer for herself.

She doesn't want to trust Jack because she knows she can't. Hatter is trustworthy, but can't bring her to her father. She needs answers. She's waited half her life for answers and now they're so close she can taste them, but in order to get them she's going to have to, if not trust Jack, then certainly believe what he says.

It's a rock and a hard place.

They're still arguing and this time it looks like they might actually fight.

"Both of you stop!" She commands again. "I'm not going anywhere with anyone until I figure this out."

"Alice we have to go, quickly," Jack says. "Your friend can't come with us, I'm sorry—the Resistance was very clear, you come on their terms. You want to see your father again, don't you?"

"Yes, of course…"

"Then we must go."

"But Hatter's…" she trails off—there are hundreds of different ways she can end that sentence and she's not sure which to use. "He stood by me. He's coming with us."

"Who are you going to trust?" Jack asks, the words heavy in the air around them. He straightens up and lifts his chin. "A Resistance insider and future King, who has already scheduled your return trip through the Looking Glass—a man who cares for you more than anyone else in the world… or this man?" He nods disdainfully to Hatter.

Now that she can see Jack for what he truly is, she wonders what the hell she ever saw in him—he might be a Resistance insider and taking a bigger risk than anyone else in the Resistance in helping them, but he's far from the wonderful man she once thought he was. He's using her, plain and simple. For some reason, because he needs or wants something, he's using her.

"You—how did—that's not—I'm—what—" the words come haltingly and she's unable to string together a coherent sentence as rage burns in the pit of her stomach like a bad case of acid indigestion. Her hands shake and her fingernails bite into her palms as she clenches her fists at her sides, trying to keep from jumping over and beating him bloody on the ground.

Off to her side, Hatter is clenching his jaw, the muscles in his face twitching as his teeth grind together. He's just as angry, just as enraged.

"Okay, look, Princess," she explodes at Jack. "You've got an awful lot of nerve! My god, you're just… just so…" she can't finish the sentence. She fists her hands in her hair and then takes a slow, deep breath. "All right. You—" she points at Jack, "—stay here." Then she thinks the better of that and changes her orders. "No, on second thought—untie Charlie!"

The man looks utterly shocked to have been spoken to like that, especially by her, but after he recovers from that shock he goes over to the knight to carry out his orders.

"You, come with me," she says to Hatter, grabbing his hand and marching off into the woods until they're a reasonable distance from Jack and hopefully out of earshot.

When she turns, she expects to see him giving her that 'oh-Alice-what-have-you-done' look he's perfected over the last few days, but instead he's got a hugely amused grin on his face.

"Y'know, Alice," he says. "If I didn't know for certain you didn't, I'd think you had a huge set of balls on you."

His joke breaks up the tension that's been steadily knotting in her chest and gut and she leans against him, laughing softly.

"Oh, god, this is turning into a clusterfuck," she says.

"I'm gonna guess that's not as good as it sounds."

He hugs her and strokes her hair, and she fastens her arms around his waist under his coat; there they stay until their breathing evens out and their collective urge to kill Jack and make it look like an accident subsides.

"I have to know what happened to my dad," she says finally.

"I know. I just don't trust him."

"Me neither."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I have to go with him."

He draws back sharply, pushing her back by the shoulders and furrowing his brows at her.

"You can't be serious."

"I wish I wasn't, but… I have to know."

"For all you know he's lying!"

"I know. For all I know it's another trap. He already said he wants the ring—whether he really wants it for the Resistance or whether he wants it for his mother, I dunno. But one thing's for sure—my dad was here, once before." She pulls out the watch and holds it between them. "This… he had to have left this here. My dad was in Wonderland and I want to know what happened. You have to understand—I've spent most of my life looking for the answers. Now I might finally get them."

"Or you might end up on the Queen's chopping block!"

He takes his hat off and turns away from her, shaking his head and running his free hand through his hair, muttering and shifting.

"I can't stop you, and I can't go with you. It all sounds fishy—they want you to come alone and they sent the Prince to come get you? Sends up warning flags, if I'm honest."

"I know, it sends up warning flags for me, too. But he has a point. There aren't any Suits here, no backup, and he has to have been told how to get here by someone who knew."

"Sounds to me like you've made up your mind."

"Call it resignation," she says.

He sets his hat back on his head and turns back to her. She expects him to give her some lecture about not trusting Jack, or scold her for being so impetuous because between the two of them he's far more level-headed than she is. Instead he grabs her by the shoulders and wraps his arms around her, hugging her fiercely like he never wants to let go. When she hugs him back, clutching him just as tight, he releases a shaky breath against her ear.

"Please be careful," he whispers.

Her eyes get suddenly teary and she rubs against his shoulder.

"You know me—I'm always careful," she jokes. But he isn't in the mood for joking anymore and neither is she.

There's a lot of shuffling coming from the other direction—Jack's untied Charlie and they must be waiting for them to come back. Alice moves to step away from Hatter but he holds her in place. When she looks up at him his mouth meets hers, soft and gentle and warm. He has one hand up caressing the back of her neck and the other on the small of her back. Their bodies are flush—hips to hips and chest to chest—and neither of them wants to be the first to break the kiss or to step back.

Eventually they have to.

He doesn't follow her back to Jack and Charlie. Instead he hangs behind and watches her go.

"Alice," he says her name to get her to turn around. He looks like he wants to say something, something important, but at the last second he's changed his mind and goes with, "If he gets fresh, stab him in the groin."

She has a sneaking suspicion she knows what he wanted to say, and she thinks she feels the same thing for him. It's too fast, or it would be too fast if things were normal for her right now and things are anything but normal. She should say it—one thing her father's disappearance has taught her, it's that things left unsaid are always far more painful than those that are said.

But she doesn't.

"I'll come back," she says instead.

She goes with Jack, but a part of her stays up there in the forest with Hatter.