Ok, I know these are short but this is my first posting so, let me know if I would be better with a one shot. Constructive Criticism is very much encouraged!

I do not own any of the Characters, I just love them…

Chapter 1: Into the Land of Oysters

"Alice! I'm an idiot! Well o' course, you knew that but I just…. ALICE!" Hatter skid to a halt next to the puddle Alice had fallen into. "Oh, no. No no no no no!" he cried as he fell to his knees next to the unconscious form of the one girl he has ever had any real feelings for. Gently he lifted her head, wiping the muck out of her dark hair. She let out the smallest of whimpers, making him stop short.

"Alice, ALICE can you hear me? Please wake up!"

This wasn't happening! She has been through too much to be bested by a bloody puddle. Hatter was not one to sit and cry when there was something he could do. He might be the former owner of a tea shop but he had done his fair share of rescue missions. He would not let himself cry. There wasn't a point to it, he would save her. There was no other option.

He lifted her petite form in his arms and started out of the abandoned building. "Hatter?"

"Alice! You alright?"

"Hatter."

She was not talking to him. It must have been some dream. She was still lost in her mind somewhere, but she was saying his name! Not that stupid git Jack's. He dared to hope. He knew they had shared a moment in the woods, and he felt that unmistakable connection to her as soon as he had taken her hand. But when saw them saying goodbye, she had seemed so sad to be leaving poor Jack all alone, or so he had thought.

Who would want a rebel over a Prince?

He couldn't give her a kingdom, no matter how much she deserved one. All he had to offer was a keen eye for hats and a mad earl grey. Would that be enough to keep her? This train of thought wasn't helping anything, What was he doing worrying about that mushy crap when she was hurt?

"Hold on luv" he might have imagined it, but, she seemed to relax into his chest.

Up ahead, a light became visible down the last corridor. As he ran the last stretch he imagined he was back in Wonderland, the suits right at his back, almost safe in the great library. Step by step, he pushed through the haze towards the outside world, the world he had feared and resented his whole life. The world that she had been fighting to get back to.

He fell through the threshold into a dark alley behind an abandoned warehouse. The world he had left seemed to be following him. The dark alley could have been any number of wonderland alleys; it was too dark to see much except the street past the buildings. He could hear oysters going about their night, oblivious to him and his cargo.

"Help me! Someone, please!" He cried at them, as he shifted her slipping form to a more secure position in his arms.

He tried to get a better grip as he broke out into the street, but she was falling. He cried out as he watched her drop away in slow motion. He reached down deep within himself for the strength that usually infused his right fist. If he could use that power for destruction, surely he could use it to save her.

"Alice! Where are you?"

A petite older woman was calling down the street away from him.

"Alice!"

She hadn't seen him yet. He had a choice to make, he could clearly see that this woman was searching for His Alice but was she a friend or was she an agent sent by the queen before her downfall? Could he trust her? Then she turned and looked right at them.

A mix of emotions crossed her face in the split second it took for her to realize that the women in his arms was the one she was after. Should he make a break for it back down the alley or stay and try to fight her off. Then he looked into the women's eyes, they were Alice's eyes, he glanced down at the sleeping girl and back up at the advancing figure. Why did she have Alice's eyes?

He was frozen, this had literally never happened before, his legs wouldn't move. She ran to him and took Alice's limp hand,

"What happened, Alice, Honey? Open your eyes for mommy."

"Mommy?" he breathed.

He stared at her in awe, this was Alice's mother! Of course! She didn't have Alice's eyes, Alice had hers. This thought brought his focus back. With a nod back to the way he came from he explained in the only way he knew her delicate Oyster mind could handle,

"I found her in that old building, I think she hit her head or something."

Alice's mother looked up at him, her eyes were red and glistening, damn he hated it when women cried, he turned into a gooey mess.

"We need to get her to the hospital" she told him, her voice breaking on the last word.

"Come with me" she pulled him by the shoulder of his coat to the busy street where a giant yellow machine stopped at her wave.

He was familiar with all sorts of transportation but this hunk of smelly metal was not something they had on the other side of the mirror. He gently helped her mother get Alice's unconscious form into the back seat as she slid in next to her daughter. He started to back away knowing that this could be the last time he ever saw her, she didn't even know he was here, when a gentle tug stopped him.

Alice had the hem of his coat gripped in her right hand. He froze for a split second with his hand on the door and hers on his coat. He looked up at her, then at her mother, her mother looked at him and he could see the indecision in her clear blue eyes. Then a decision was made and he knew before she spoke,

"Well, are you coming?"

He decided it was best to do what she said and so he slid in beside her, it took a minute to get them situated once the van had left the curb but he sat, back straight, against the sliding door, never taking his eyes off his Alice.

He found a few more stray pieces of debris in her hair and carefully extracted them, the action did not go un-noticed by her mother, but if she minded, she didn't say a thing, she just held her daughters hand as they sped to the hospital.