Hey… I have no excuse for how late this is… so I'm sorry! This was going to be two chapters, but then I decided, "So what if this one's almost 2,000 words?"
This chapter kind of jumps forward a week or two, so Alice and Tarrant have already gone Topside again a few more times.
Disclaimer: Just a nerdy fan, here! No possession of AIW involved!
"I'll never understand how you can do that," said Alice, watching Tarrant balance at least ten full teacups in each hand.
"Practice, Cricket, its all practice," he responded.
Just then, Alice remembered something. They had promised to show Alice's family their home in Witzend soon. Who knew how "soon" it was after their last visit about a week ago?
"Tarrant?" she asked.
"Yes, Love?"
"How long do you think it's been up Topside since our last visit?"
Tarrant set the cups on the tea table (not spilling a drop) and walked over to where his wife was standing in the doorway of the windmill. He put his arms around her from behind, rubbing her rounded belly.
"I don't know," he said after a while.
"Well can we go? I want to see my family before the baby is born. We won't be able to see them all that often after then. Plus, Mother wanted to see Witzend."
"Of course, Bonnet. When do you want to go?" Tarrant asked.
"Today?" Alice asked hopefully.
Tarrant smiled. He liked Alice's family, and ever since they had told them who he was and where he was from, they had taken a great interest in Underland. So much, in fact, that Alice's mother (she insisted on him calling her 'Helen') had asked to see where they lived and meet all their friends. Alice had wholeheartedly agreed. It had been a week in Underland Time since then, but there was no way of telling how much time had passed Topside.
"Yes, I think that can be arranged."
And so, after tea, Alice and Tarrant traveled through the looking glass in their living room. Alice imagined her old bedroom, where she knew there was a full length looking glass.
When they stepped out of the glass, they saw a maid cleaning the dust off of Alice's desk. When the maid turned around at the sound of footsteps, her eyes widened.
"Miss Kingsley! How… how did you get here?" The maid, Anne, was dumbstruck. Only Alice's mother, sister, and niece knew that Alice had already visited them a few times.
"I've told you before. You can just call me Alice."
Anne looked at Alice, then at Tarrant, then back at Alice again. They could see that she was struggling not to stare at Alice's extended belly, as well.
"Who… what… where…" Anne stuttered.
"It's okay, Anne. Ask any questions you want. Don't worry about being proper or not."
"B-but, miss, it isn't my place to-"
"Are you curious or not?" Alice asked gently, rubbing her belly.
Anne looked to be fighting with her two personalities, one curious and the other proper. Unfortunately, the proper side won. "Would you like to see Mrs. Kingsley, miss?"
Alice sighed. "Yes, and fetch my sister and niece if they're here."
Anne scurried out of the door and down the hallway. "I had no idea that proper was so deeply ingrained here," Tarrant whispered.
"I know. It's a shame, really," Alice replied. They walked to the door of the room and down the stairs, Tarrant's arm around Alice's waist.
Her mother was in the living room, reading a book. When Alice and Tarrant answered, she looked up. "Hello, Alice, Tarrant."
"Hello, Mother. How long has it been since our last visit?"
"A bit over two weeks."
Just then, Margret walked into the room, Victoria on her hip, clutching the stuffed cat that Tarrant had made her.
"Alice," Margret laughed, "what did you and Tarrant do to Anne? She looked downright frightened when she came to tell me that you were here."
"She was cleaning my room when Tarrant and I stepped through the looking glass. When she turned and saw us there, it must have looked very strange to her. After all, it really isn't every day that a woman who has been missing for two years shows up in her old bedroom, wearing unusual clothes, in the arms of a man who doesn't exactly have the most normal appearance in the world," (Tarrant laughed)," and heavily pregnant."
"Auntie Alice, when are you going to have your baby?" asked a small voice.
"Soon, Victoria," Alice answered with a smile. Ever since Victoria had discovered that Alice didn't usually have an extremely large stomach, she had questioned why. Alice had told her that she was going to have a baby soon, and every time that Victoria saw Alice, it was the first thing she said. It was very sweet.
"Do you like your cat?" Tarrant asked Victoria, indicating the stuffed gray and blue cat in Victoria's arms. It was modeled after Chessur, because he was one of Victoria's favorite people that Alice had told her stories about.
"Yes!" she answered enthusiastically, hugging the toy closer to her.
Alice turned to her mother. "Do you still want to see Underland?"
"Of course I do, Alice! I'm not going to live my life not knowing where my own daughter lives."
"May I come, too?" Margret asked.
"Me too, me too!" Victoria exclaimed.
Alice laughed. "Of course! You can all come. I'm sure that everyone there is just as eager to meet you as you are them."
"I'm sure that you won't get hit in the head too much," Tarrant added.
"Hit in the head?" Margret questioned.
"Just duck whenever you enter a room or the clearing with the tea table and you'll be fine," Alice said quickly.
They all stood in front of the looking glass in Alice's old bedroom. Margret and Helen were looking nervous and Victoria looked as if she would jump out of her shoes with excitement.
"Alright. Now just walk through it as if it was nothing but air, and make sure that you are all holding hands. We don't want anyone getting lost," Alice instructed.
Alice would go first, and then Margret, Victoria, Helen, and Tarrant brought up the back.
"Now, whatever you do, don't let go of each other's hands!" Alice said as she stepped through the glass. They all followed.
They emerged in Alice and Tarrant's living room. It was nothing out of the ordinary, for Underland standards. The walls were a purple that somehow managed to be light and dark at the same time. There were a few pieces of furniture, and one of the walls was lined with bookshelves. Completely taking up another wall was a looking glass, which they had come out of. The other walls were lined with doors, leading to almost every other room on the first floor.
"This is the living room," Alice said.
She led them around the house, pointing out many strange things as she went as if they were nothing special, which they weren't, to her, having lived here for over five years.
Finally, they went outside. Their house was located in the middle of Witzend, the small town where Tarrant's family had once lived. They had rebuilt much of it, and planned on repopulating the small town.
Tarrant and Alice lead her family into the woods, toward the clearing where the tea table and the windmill were.
As they got closer, the sound of giggling got louder and louder, until Margret asked, "What is that noise?"
"Oh, it's just Mally and Thackery, they must be at the table," Alice answered.
When they stepped into the clearing, they (as usual) were greeted by a mad-sounding "You're late for tea!" and a utensil thrown at their heads. Alice and Tarrant, on reflex, immediately ducked, while the fork almost hit Margret in the head.
"Oh my- What was that?" she shouted.
"Thackery! Please do not throw silverware at my family," Alice scolded him.
"Family?" the dormouse and hare said at the same time, looking up.
"Alice! Is this ya family?" Mally asked, pointing to the group of three standing at the edge of the clearing.
"Yes," answered Alice, walking with Tarrant to the head of the table where he sat in his armchair and she sat on his right side. "Please, sit," she said to her family.
Margret and Helen were hesitant, but Victoria skipped right up to the head of the table and sat on the other side of Alice.
"I'm Victoria," she stated.
"My niece," Alice explained. "And over there is my mother and sister. Mother, Margret, Victoria, this is Mally the Dormouse and Thackery the March Hare."
"Hello!" Victoria said to them.
"H… hello," stuttered Margret and Helen. They didn't know what to make of the scene. Alice had told them about the talking animals in Underland, and they had believed it, but they hadn't thought they would actually see it.
"Auntie Alice told me about you. She said that you saved her from a bandy… a bandy…" Victoria said to Mally.
"She did? Ya tol' 'er bout me, Alice?" Mally asked proudly.
"Of course I did! You saved me from the Bandersnatch."
"And Auntie Alice told me about you too, she said that you were a very good cook," Victoria said to Thackery.
"Aye," Thackery said, twitching a bit.
"If you want to see Mamoreal, we will have to get going now. You don't want to be stuck in the Tulgey Wood at night," Tarrant said.
And so, they said goodbye to Thackery and Mally, and set off to the White Castle. Alice and Tarrant carried a pot full of Earl Grey tea and two cups. Margret and Helen had opted to leave their tea at the table.
As they walked in the direction of Mamoreal, Tarrant put his free arm around Alice and rubbed her belly. They baby was kicking extremely hard lately, probably because Alice was less than a month from her due date.
The baby would be coming any time now, and Tarrant was extremely nervous. He had never been a father before. He had no younger siblings, so the only younger children he had ever known were his cousins. He was also getting more and more protective of Alice. What if she ran away from him, with their child, because she finally came to her senses and realized that he was disgusting and mad.
His eyes must have changed color, because Alice put her hand over his where it lay on her belly and whispered, "I love you. So, so much."
D'awww… Sweet ending (to this chapter)… yay! Don't forget to R&R!
~SquimberryJuice
