Well here I am again! Sorry about the wait, and I hope some of you are still around! At least I can say that this is a much longer chapter than the last! We're now getting a closer look at the King of Hearts, and hopefully the plot has actually started moving. Sort of.

As I'm always sad to say when writing fanfiction: absolutely nothing that you recognise belongs to me.

Looking down on the unconscious man lying in the bed before him, Jack rolled his shoulders slightly and tried not to look as anxious as he felt. Finding the exiled members of his family had sounded like a good idea when he first conceived of it, but in practice with the one surviving member bandaged and near death in the suite that had been arranged for him, it was looking far more like madness.

What had possessed him to order the man dragged from the Oysters' world to this one? Granted, it looked like the Rabbit-hole had come at a very opportune time if his cousin's wounds were any thing to go by, but the fact still remained that he'd all but kidnapped the other man. He sighed; no matter. He could hardly go back on his decision now. He would just have to wait until his cousin pulled through. Once he did, then they could... discuss the current circumstances. He mentally shook off the subject and turned to the physician hovering about.

"How is he?" The pale man wrung his hands, obviously nervous at the presence of a member of the Heart family, benevolent though Jack might try to be.

"He will live, your majesty, but his recovery might take a bit more time than usual. The damage to his shoulder was quite extensive." He eyed his patient critically. "Still, he was lucky. Had the creature hit him even a few inches over, it would likely have killed him."

"Can you tell if he is who he's supposed to be?" Jack asked absently. He could see little resemblance between the stranger and himself. Doubt began to rise, and he turned his gaze back to the physician who only shrugged.

"Is he your cousin Sire? I can hardly tell. But I can tell you one thing, he was born in Wonderland. Had he been an Oyster, those few inches wouldn't have saved him." He tilted his head and peered thoughtfully at the unconscious man. "Oysters tend to be more... fragile than Wonderlanders, after all."

Jack blinked a bit at that description. The Oysters he'd come in contact with had seemed anything but fragile. Of course, he could hardly compare every Oyster to his Alice. She was... Not his Alice. He swallowed a sigh and twitched his suit sleeves straight for lack of anything else to do with his hands. The physician was still droning on as if to himself, but Jack ignored him. They weren't going to learn anything further here. Not while the other man was still unconscious. No, it seemed Caterpillar was right after all.

"Number 10." He turned to see his adviser hovering unobtrusively in the doorway, apparently awaiting this very summons.

"Sire, you-"

"Summon a Scarab." He was gratified to see that Number 10 didn't look too offended by Jack's interruption. Granted, even at his most abrupt, Jack was far more gracious than his mother. Or so he hoped.

"At once, Sire. What destination should I tell the pilot?"

"The Hospital of Dreams. I need to see a man about a Cheshire."

Jack stepped confidently from the Scarab as they reached their destination, pausing only to reach back and offer a hand as Duchess descended behind him. For a moment, his confident mask tried to falter, but if the elegant young woman noticed, she gave no sign of it. The flight with her standing next to him had been awkward to say the least. Not that Duchess was anything but polite, and indeed, she had become much more pleasant of a companion since weaning herself off his mother's teas. But things between Jack and his former fiance had become... strained. Especially after his offer of marriage to Alice. He had thought Duchess, of anyone at court, would understand his reasoning: giving a throne to the hero of the realm would only strengthen Jack's own rule, and besides, it wasn't as if Duchess had been engaged to Jack of her own free will. Whether she "cared for him" or not, Jack had been sure she would have been glad to be free of the farce of an engagement. It seemed he had judged her wrong.

He pushed the thought away as they approached the desk. The receptionist was the same one who always greeted him, and he wondered vaguely if the cockroach was also the same or a replacement.

"He's on the roof," she told them begrudgingly, turning her attention back to her pet without another word. Duchess raised a graceful eyebrow at him, but Jack could only shrug.

"Come, my dear. And try to ignore the screaming, if you can. It is enough to drive anyone mad." She surprised him then, speaking for the first time since she'd asked to come along.

"Don't worry, Jack. I've been here before; they don't bother me." He actually froze for a moment to stare at her. Why would Duchess, a pampered Diamond noble, have had any need to come to this wretched place. He suddenly realized she had not paused to wait for him, instead striding confidently to the elevator at the end of the hall. He strode quickly after her, only managing to slide into the car before the doors closed behind him.

"Would you have waited for me or gone up alone?" he asked, more than a little miffed at her uncharacteristic lack of courtesy. She merely smiled serenely, her mind apparently somewhere else.

"You would have caught the next car and been only moments behind me. It would not have mattered."

"This place isn't safe, Duchess. You should-"

"Jack." Her voice was less serene now. "As I said, I've been here before. I don't need your protection here or anywhere else." He felt the words like a blow, and fought to keep his features blank. Duchess sighed. "I meant no criticism, Jack." He looked away. He supposed he should have known better than to think she wouldn't read him.

Thankfully, the elevator door opened before either of them were forced to speak again. They stepped out onto a gravel path that stretched across the huge open area, twisting its way between beds of vegetables and flowers alike. The gardens were nearly painfully organized; even the flowers grew in regimented rows. Jack swallowed; it was a sight that felt unnatural in the chaotic world of Wonderland. He seemed the only one thus affected, however; the gardeners went about their business with a strange efficiency, rarely stopping to gossip as one might have expected, only attending to their tasks with single-minded focus. Duchess ignored both the gardens and the gardeners. Jack followed her gaze to the far end of the roof where three figures stood out from the rigid order of the gardens.

"This way," she called softly over her shoulder. She then set off down the path, striding easily in the boots and soft trousers she wore. Jack suffered a moment's distraction as he compared the picture of her now, soft and approachable, to the hard glittering figure she had once been. It was strange that she actually seemed stronger now, with her frailties and gentleness in full view for all to see. He collected himself sharply, and caught up with her, his long legs giving him the only advantage he had to her purposeful gait.

They slowed as they reached the far end and the only place on the roof that seemed free of order. This small patch was the chaos he'd expected, flowers blooming willy-nilly side by side with cabbages and yellow squash and patches of cushioning green lawn. One of the figures half turned to acknowledge their approach. Caterpillar had apparently expected them. The other two figures were clearly Cheshires: a boy barely into his teens was spinning in a dizzy circle, giggling all the while. The other, an older woman with a shock of white hair was skipping to a song he couldn't catch the lyrics of, bouncing back and forth to the rhythm in his head. He shivered a bit unnerved by the mad pair. A faint movement along the wall drew his eyes, and he noted a third figure, this one stretched out on the wall itself like a feline in the sun. It was impossible to tell this one's age or gender, but he felt sure it too was a Cheshire. Who else would be mad enough to dally on a roof's edge 70 stories up?

Apparently satisfied that Jack had surveyed all he needed to, Caterpillar now turned to actually face his guests.

"Jack, Duchess. You look well, my dear." Duchess dragged her eyes away from the supine Cheshire to smile at him.

"I am well. Thank you, Doctor." He gave her a blinking nod.

"And you, Sire? Are you well with your new guest safely in the palace?" Jack shook his head tightly.

"I wish I could say that I was, Caterpillar, but as you would guess, I am quite confounded by the man." He clenched his jaw, hating to admit to any kind of weakness in front of Duchess. "The physicians say he might not wake for days; I need to know what to expect when he does."

"So you come for a Cheshire as I suggested when he first arrived." Caterpillar's voice was mild, but for someone who knew him well, there was no mistaking the censure in his voice. Jack just chose to ignore it.

"Yes I did. I must say, I am surprised to see so few. I thought most of the survivors were being kept here at the Hospital."

"They are. All of those on the roof are members of the Cheshire tribe." Caterpillar gestured back to the gardeners, his eyes faintly sorrowful behind his glasses.

"All of them... but..." Jack turned to stare, feeling his unease at the unnatural order in a shiver down his spine.

"All of them, Sire." Caterpillar began to pace slowly, half his attention on the Cheshires they now discussed, and half on the three he'd watched before. "The Cheshires are victims of the Queen, as so many others are. She sought to use them, you see. To harness their dream-sensing abilities to further control her subjects, but their madness made it impossible to force them to do her bidding. Mad as they are naturally, they feel little fear or pain, especially while in the midst of someone's dreaming."

"She dosed them, Jack. Forced Clear-Sighted and Sanity down them until they became the Cheshires you see now." Jack glanced over at Duchess, surprised she knew so much about the tribe. She still stared fixedly at the Cheshire on the wall, refusing to meet his gaze.

"You mother went too far, dosing them into overdose and horrible sanity. The effects of those you see before you are quite permanent. Some died from the effect; some took their own lives as they lost their mad genius and their gift. The rest..." Caterpillar gestured toward the gardeners again. Jack blinked as a thought occurred to them and he turned back to survey the trio behind them.

"But what about them?"

"Drugged on a careful prescription of Genius, Mania, and Elation. We discovered quite by accident that we could actually reverse the effects of the original doses with such a mixture. That was eventually how the Queen managed to actually control them." Caterpillar looked unconcerned by the fact. "She kept a special segment of the casino solely for this project."

"So, why only those three?" Jack asked quietly.

"The teas required to make the formula are almost gone. We are rationing it out as long as we can, allowing each Cheshire a few days each month to reclaim their old gifts on a strict rotation." Only now did Caterpillar seem affected, regret tinging his words. "Soon we will not even be able to offer them that."

Jack barely hid his own sorrow for the madcap tribe. It was hard to imagine Wonderland without the Cheshires. They had been known as mystics of a sort, wise fools who danced through and looked into others' dreams to dispense insight and mischief by turns. They were as much a part of the old legends as the Knights of old and the original Alice. A last symbol of a wilder, now dying age. It was not a thought Jack was comfortable with, and he shook it away, focusing on the errand that had sent him here.

"These three, which will be of the most use?" He caught Duchess throwing him a hard look, and he rushed to try and soften his demand. "Which can handle the shock of leaving here without becoming... confused?" Caterpillar's eyes were gentler than Duchess's had been, but Jack had no doubt the older man had seen through him.

"Perhaps you should gauge that for yourself. You three, come closer," he called. The two on the lawn scampered quickly over, and he introduced them. "This is Lily, and he is Griffin. The last is-"

"What a lazy Cheshire." Jack felt his heart sink. He had not expected to hear that biting scorn from Duchess again. He'd hoped she'd left her Court voice behind with the teas and his mother's reign, but it seemed he was wrong. He lifted his head to stare at her, and was surprised to see a wide smile spread across her face. He followed his eyes to where the third Cheshire tensed. "Why Jack, she looks positively useless, don't you think?"

The Cheshire suddenly rolled backwards off the wall, catching herself on her hands and toes with a haphazard grace. Her head lifted revealing narrowed green eyes that stared straight at Duchess. Then, before Jack could think to protect her, the Cheshire leapt slamming bodily into the taller woman with a shriek.

"Alicia!" To his shock, Duchess wrapped her arms around the Cheshire and spun in a circle, laughing in a way he'd never seen from her before. The Cheshire chattered away, clearly comfortable with his former fiance. "Alicia, my Duchess, you never come to see me anymore. I thoughts maybe you'd forgotten your little kitty cat in all the hullabaloo of the court and consternation. You didn't though, did you? You didn't and you're here. You're here, my Alicia Duchess. You are!"

"Yes, I am. And I'll try to come more often if I can, Kitty." Duchess set the smaller woman down and turned back to the men. "Jack, this is Cat."

He took a moment to look the woman over. She was tiny, but surprisingly looked to be only a year or two younger than Duchess. Her eyes, he'd already noticed, bright green and red rimmed as the eyes of any Cheshire would be. She had a short mop of ruddy curls that fell into her eyes, and as he watched she shook them out of her face with a toss of her head. That was when he realized he recognized her.

"Not this one. She was my mother's creature." As one, both Duchess and Cat narrowed their eyes, and Jack shut his mouth with a snap.

"Many of us were, Jack dear." The scorn was back in Duchess's voice, but this time Jack didn't doubt it was deserved. "If you'll remember, we were rarely given a choice in the matter." Jack gave Caterpillar a quick look, but his old mentor didn't seem to be in the mood to help him.

"Ah, yes. I-"

"Your Majesty." The Cheshire, Cat he reminded himself, swept into a deep curtsy that would have been painfully elegant if not for her bare feet and the barely hidden disdain on her face. The other Cheshires took one look at their comrade's face and then took a deliberate step behind her. "For what reason does the King of Hearts deign to visit us mere creatures?"

Jack wasn't sure he wanted to admit why he was really there: that he hoped to use one of them just as his mother had. For a better reason, surely, but he would be using them just the same. Judging from the look on Cat's face, she knew it too. Damned psychics. He took a breath, trying to decide how to word his response.

"I need the help of one of you to read the intentions of a guest of mine." Cat tilted her head, eyes staring at the air around him.

"Not right to start with a lie, young lord. He's family or so you hope. So you dream." He swallowed.

"You're right. I do hope he is family, but as yet I do not know." He folded his hands behind his back. "And, as you might know, my family is not always kind. I would like to know who I am dealing with before he wakes."

Cat shot a glance over at Duchess, and the tall blonde carefully nodded.

"It's important, Kitty. We, the court, we need all the help we can get. We can't chance any unknowns." Jack shot her a grateful look, but Duchess didn't notice. Cat turned her stare back to Jack.

"Will your pet Cheshire need to... to come with you?" Jack nodded solemnly, his eyes just past her to the other two who had started to tremble as soon as she mentioned leaving the Hospital. Cat was the one to swallow this time, trembling a bit herself. "Then it will have to be me, then won't it Doctor?"

"You have the most... experience with the outside world." His voice was almost gentle with the sharp-tongued Cheshire. Certainly it was far more gentle than Caterpillar had ever been with anyone else in Jack's memory. It didn't soothe her. She ducked her head, and this time her voice was quiet and almost broken.

"Will-will I have to go back to the Ca-casino?" Duchess sucked in a hard breath and then her arm was around the other woman.

"No, no Kitty. I thought you knew. The Casino is gone, Kitty. It fell the day the Queen lost power." She shot a look over Cat's head at the doctor. "Did you not tell them?" Cat shook her head against Duchess's shoulder.

"He probably did, Alicia, he probably did but if I was not my self, I'll not likely remember. It's harder without the dreaming to keep track of what is me and what is someone else." Jack felt pity welling in him as the Cheshire trembled. He tried to keep his voice as soft as Duchess's had been.

"Will you help us? I will do everything in my power to ease this for you. I swear it." Cat peaked out to pin him with her eyes again, and he tried not to fidget under the weight of them. After a moment, she pulled herself carefully out from under Duchess's arm, and then nodded.

"I will help you. I will."

So! Quick question: I was going to have each chapter focused in one character's head or another, and originally I'd planned for it to be just Jack and Stephen, but I really think the next chapter will work best from Cat's perspective. What do you think? (And no, that is not a shameful trick to try to bring in reviews. Not at all lol)