A/N: Thanks for reading, hope you like it! This is set right in the room with the looking glass before Alice goes through and leaves Hatter. It is from Hatter's viewpoint about what he went through before he went to her in her world. Please review it if you like it, hate it, or just want to let me know i spelled something wrong (or grammar too. I'm not too big of a grammar freak but i really hate it when other people's grammar is off, so I like to know if mine is). Thanks, and enjoy. ps. this is totally different from my other fic about the same eventish: She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not: .net/s/6968062/1/She_bLoves_b_Me_She_bLoves_b_Me_Not
Disclaimer: Don't own any of the characters, wish I did, yatta yatta yatta. As monty python stated "Get on with it!"
When the Adventure Started
"And many other things," she said with that sad look in her eyes.
I was about to divulge into my rambles about how she must stay because I just couldn't see her like that and I wanted her to stay so badly, but some man in a lab coat came and took her away from me. "Really? I just...," I couldn't find the words to say everything I felt in that split second.
Go you fool! Run after her! my head screamed. Didn't you see the way she looked at you when you told her she should go home?
Did you have to rub it in a little more? Besides, didn't you see the way she hugged the new king Jack-ass? I retorted.
Well suit yourself but when you go into depression from not seeing her, don't blame me!
Wow I really am mad. I thought.
"Hatter!" someone bellowed with annoyance. Sounded like they had said it a few times before. "Geeze are you def?" said the old geezer Charlie.
"No!...I just got lost in my thoughts."
"Well, I came to tell you how unintelligent that move you just made was."
"What?"
"The fact that you just allowed Alice slip through your fingers," Charlie said sympathetically.
"Oh. Well, she didn't belong in this world anyways," I said quickly, while the lump in my throat go bigger and bigger.
"Maybe, maybe not. But you two do belong together."
I couldn't bear anymore of this so I spun around and sulked out. She is better off without me. I would just get her in more trouble. She deserves better. I kept trying to cheer myself up with words like these, but I still felt... what was that feeling? I had never felt it before, and it was so painful I never wanted to feel it again. I had heard someone say it once...heartbreak? Yes, that was it, heartbreak. I have to get to my ransacked teashop before I fall over here because of it. I have to keep my mind off of Alice. God, it even hurt to think her name.
Once back at the shop, he fell down into his chair and curled up. He sat like that for what felt like hours, and soon turned into days. He couldn't stop thinking about Alice. He never ate, he slept rarely, and when he did, he dreamed, and it was always about her. Each time he was walking through a hallway following her. He tried to call out and catch up to her, but every time she left through the glass mirror before he could get a chance to stop her. After several weeks (he wasn't sure though; he had lost track of all time), a knock came on his door. He said nothing, for he had not moved a muscle in so long he didn't think he could talk. Someone wrapped on his door again and after five minutes of constant knocking, the person just let himself in.
"Hatter? I know your here, so I came and checked up on you. No one's seen you for weeks. Some people started getting worried." I thought I was imagining things when I heard his voice but the way that he said "some people," I knew it had to be him. I had just enough strength left to sit up and turn my chair.
"Wow Hatter, never thought you could look worse but here you are proving me wrong."
"What do you want Jack?" I snapped. I was fuming that he even came here after all he had done to me and...Alice. I winced just thinking about her.
"Well, before she left, Alice (Hatter grimaced), told me to check up on you every now and then and see how you were doing. I told her I would try to, but I'm only going to be here once, Hatter."
"She...she did?"
"Yes, but I merely came to tell you that I never thought you were truly mad until you let her go through the Looking Glass and that even though I hate you, I want Alice to be happy. You must go after her Hatter. She IS your life and we both know it. She loves you so much; she even turned down the offer to be my queen."
"She what?"
"Yes Hatter, she turned down my proposal again because she "had changed." And I have enough knowledge to know that "I changed" means that she was, and if you can get there in time, still is in love with another man, and that man is you."
"I...I don't know what to say." I was stunned that he even told me that.
"You don't need to. Just put these new cloths on, and I'll give you everything I had in her world. She needs you Hatter, and from the looks of it, you need her too."
"T-t-t-thanks?" I stuttered.
"I didn't do this for you. Just remember that," he said sharply.
"Yes. Of course." I knew it! It was never about me. Always about her!
"Well get dressed, you leave in ten minutes."
Five minutes later, after a combing through his hair, a warm shower and a clothing exchange (and some food), he looked like new. On the way to the mirror, Jack explained that he was going to get Jack's old apartment and needed a job to get money. Jack only had twenty dollars left from his trip through the glass. It would be enough for now, but twenty bucks isn't much. Hatter still didn't get the point of this green paper. Jack told him he would need a real name. Hatter just isn't normal in the Oysters' world. He decided to figure that out later. Jack gave him the address and he was off through the Looking Glass.
He came through the other side and stumbled a little before trying to find his way out of the masses of alleyways. It took him the better part of half an hour to get out. When he did, he found his way to Alice's apartment and that's when he started getting nervous. He paced around outside the door for around fifteen minutes and finally thought, What the hell? If she says no, then...well I don't know what, but at least I saw her one last time. I might as well try.
He tapped on the door with a shaky fist. Her mother, he presumed, answered the door. She asked him if he was David, and he said yeah, sure. At least he wouldn't have to think about a name to make up later. He came in and when she called for Alice, his stomach flipped several times and his heart froze. This is it, he thought. Here she comes. PLEASE remember me!
As she walked out, it broke his heart (again) to see how sad she looked. But when she looked up, her eyes shined with happiness; his heart was suddenly whole. She called out his name and ran towards him. He hugged her with all his heart and love, and to his delight she did the same. All he could think to say was, "Finally."
When she said, "You have no idea how happy I am to see you," he had the sudden overpowering urge to kiss her and so he did. They kissed passionately for what seemed like hours even though it as only minutes. Once they had finished reuniting, Alice's mother still had that look of utter shock on her face and she wanted answers NOW.
"Alice...what the hell is going on here? Do you two know each other?"
Alice looked at Hatter. "Well Mom, you're going to think I'm crazy, so you might want to sit down."
She practically fell down in the chair she found.
"Here goes something," Alice mumbled as Hatter, or as he was now supposed to be called, David, held her hand reassuringly. "Umm...where to start? Well, when I ran after Jack, I found him being kidnapped by some men, one who was wearing a white rabbit on his jacket. He took the container Jack had given with the ring in it, except I had taken the ring out. He ran and I ran after him. I ran right into a mirror, but instead of breaking it, I went right through it. That's when the adventure started..."