A/N:

Well, you asked for it so here it is! I will now be continuing Hatter's Hobby.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It made me so glad to get them! You guys rock!

Let's get back to Hatter shall we? After all, that's why you're here right?

Hatter closed the front door of the flat quietly. He could hear the television in the back room buzz slightly as he headed toward the kitchen, smiling to himself as he did so. Alice was home early and waiting for him as usual. Or, Hatter thought to himself as he searched through the cupboards to make a soothing cup of tea, perhaps he was late. He didn't have the time. Katherine's phone call had thrown him for a loop. So far though a loop in fact that it was all Hatter could think about for the rest of that day. He didn't let it show to his customers of course, but anyone who knew him well would have been able to tell something was on his mind. Now that he was home, he could think properly. Take the part? Or not take the part? He hadn't been expecting it at all, he didn't want it.

Katherine knew he didn't have any experience, he had told her himself. Hatter didn't have the time to memorize the lines. When he was there and read the lines for Mordred, he didn't sing the song, Six Lethal Virtues or whatever the hell it was called. How could Katherine have cast him? Sure, she had said that he had done the best Mordred throughout the auditions, and that he was the only one who had read it exactly the way she had pictured it, but why him? There had been plenty of other people auditioning for the part of Mordred, and one of them had even gotten one of those extra readings. One of them had to have been good enough to be Mordred right?

"Hatter?"

He whirled around in surprise and found himself face to face with Alice. Hatter had been thinking so hard he hadn't heard her come in. A very un-Hatter-like characteristic. Usually, he would always notice when she, or anyone came into a room whether he had his back on them or not. Alice seemed to notice the change in character, and it worried her even more, Hatter could tell.

"Alice," Hatter muttered, reaching into the cupboards and pulling out a teacup for Alice before shutting it. "Hey!" He smiled at her. "I was just making a quick cup of tea. Care to join me?"

"You're late." Alice said as he handed her a teacup and turned his back on her to turn the cooker on. "I was beginning to get worried."

"Sorry, Love." He said, pouring water into the kettle. "I was a bit out of sorts today at work. Took a while to get everything finished for the day."

"What happened?" She asked as she leaned against the counter and stared at him. Hatter sighed. He knew he was going to have to tell her sooner or later. Alice knew him too well for him to be able to hide it.

"I got a phone call this afternoon. From Katherine Matthews."

"That lady from the Community Theater?" Alice asked her eyebrow rising slightly. "What did she want?"

Hatter presumed to tell her everything Katherine told him in great detail and what he said in return. He found that once he began, all of the thoughts that had been buzzing in his head since he talked to Katherine, came pouring out of him. Alice had this effect on him, for he felt that he could honestly tell her anything and she would love him no less than before. As he continued on telling Alice the details, they found their way into the living room, teacups in hand, sitting side by side on their couch. Hatter emphasized his worries, especially that he did not want the part. Alice was quiet while he talked. Listening intently.

"So long story short," Hatter said as he leaned against the couch, shifting his now empty teacup in his hand. "I don't have the time or the skills. I can't—I don't want to do it."

Alice stared at him, her light blue eyes not leaving his face. "I think you should do it anyway."

"Have you not heard a word I said?"

"Yeah," Alice said. "I can see you're in denial."

"Denial?" Hatter said. How could she say he was in denial? Why was it that everyone seemed to think that he was interested in this damn production? All he did was help out someone in need and then go watch some people read and helped them out to. He was a helpful guy that's all. Why did Oysters have to try to overanalyze everything?

"You can do it Hatter." Alice said, putting her teacup down and moving closer to him on the couch. "You used those skills in Wonderland. I remember. You're really good at it."

Hatter scoffed. Those skills he had learned were for his survival. They were entirely different, weren't they? He shrugged it off, saying the only thing he could think of. "I'm not interested, Alice."

"You are interested Hatter. If you weren't, you would have told Katherine no thank you and wouldn't have given it another thought."

He opened his mouth to speak but shut it again. When Katherine had said it, it had sounded completely mental but when Alice said it was a different kettle of onions. Hatter had admitted to himself earlier that it had been an interesting story. After he had gone to the auditions the rest of the day had been quite a good one. Hatter had been in a fabulous mood, making it much easier to do his job, making his customers happy and he found himself with a jar full of tips as a result. Obviously, everyone noticed and had put two and two together. Everyone but him that is.

"Look," Alice said her arms wrapping around his waist. "It's up to you, but I think you should do it. You work way too hard in the shop and need something to get rid of your stress—"

"What stress?"

"Besides." Alice said, ignoring his question as she stared up at him. "I want to see you up on stage, singing your heart out as Mordead."

"Mordred, love. The character's name is Mordred."

"Mordred then." Alice said smiling at him. "I want you to do it Hatter."

"But," Hatter argued, sounding much like a child who didn't want to eat their vegetables. "What about the shop? If I have to practice while the shop is open what'll I do?"

"You have a manager. It's about time you put her to work. Besides, I can manage the shop too Hatter. You need to get out of the shop and everyday routine. Do something fun!"

XXXXXXXXXX

That Sunday, Hatter found himself walking through the doors of the community theater. His legs felt numb as he walked through the large double doors where he could see a group of people all sitting at the round table that was sitting on the stage—which Hatter assumed would end up being the Round Table in the production. Katherine sat facing him. At the sight of him, Katherine smiled. Hatter could almost swear he saw her sigh in relief just a tad.

"David! I'm glad you're here! Come on up!"

As he walked up toward the stage, Hatter cleared his throat uncomfortably as the people around the table turned to look at him. How would he be able to do his part if just a few people staring at him made him uncomfortable? He sat down in the only remaining seat at the table as Katherine gestured towards him.

"This is David Hatter, everyone. He'll be playing Mordred."

Hatter responded to the few 'hellos' 'hi's' and grunts in greeting with a simple "G'morning." (despite it being afternoon) and a head nod as Katherine handed him two small books. One of them was blood red and labeled in large gold letters "Camelot," in the same gold letters but in much smaller font read "Mordred." Hatter assumed this was his script. It wasn't as thick as he had anticipated and he was thankful for that. However, the black book, labeled the exact same way was about twice as thick. He opened it and flipped through it, to realize that it was the music. Hatter stared at the odd markings that were called 'notes' and words of the beginning song of the musical as Katherine began to introduce the rest of the main cast.

"You know Adam of course," She said gesturing to her left. Adam sat there and waved his hand in greeting. Hatter smiled a dimpled smile at him as he flipped the page. "This is Emma Fields, who'll be playing Guenevere."

Katherine pointed to the girl directly in front of him. She was a pretty thing with blonde hair that fell delicately to her shoulders. He had seen her audition, she had been one of the rather good ones, although a few had impressed him a bit more. Hatter had to do a double take on her, because her eyes were a bright purple color, Hatter assumed she was wearing contacts. The Emma girl smiled at him as Katherine continued on. "Next to you is Kris Edison, who's Lancelot."

Hatter shook hands with the tall, nerdy looking man beside him. How this guy was going to pull off Lancelot, Hatter had no idea but he smiled at him anyway.

"Over here," Katherine continued, "Is Daniel Delgado, who'll be playing both Merlyn and Pellinore, who's also referred to as Pelly."

Hatter nodded toward the tall blond man, who was massive. When he spoke to Hatter in greeting, he noticed that Daniel had a gruff booming voice, which sent shivers down Hatter's spine.

"You have a very important scene with Daniel as well as Rachel Simons who is Morgan Le Fay." Katherine said. The woman on his opposite end nodded towards Hatter and smiled. Her hair was up in a loose knot and she wore a gray cabby hat. Hatter liked that hat, when he told Rachel; she blushed and whispered her thanks shyly. "Bella Myers is going to be Nimue, but she isn't going to be at these practices because her character is only in one scene—but it's an important character and I thought you should know. She's going to be in the chorus for the rest of the play."

Hatter arched an eyebrow as he turned yet another page in the music book. With all of these introductions, he was only about one third into the book and had yet to find a song with his character's name on it. Maybe he didn't have to sing after all!

"And last but not least," Katherine said gesturing towards the final person. "Is Rick Klein, who is Dinaden." When Hatter looked at Rick, the first impression he got was stuck up. The man barley looked at Hatter and stared down at his script.

Katherine then continued to speak about now that they had everyone present; they were going to begin to read it together as a group. The play started slowly, but Hatter found it quite amusing. He and the rest of the cast snickered along as they went through the script when it was called for, such as when crazy old Pellinore stumbled into the May Day celebration talking about Arthur turning himself into a Bunny Rabbit and associating with some "Funny Bunnies." They were all in awe when that was called for, such as when Lancelot and Guenevere admitted their love for one another.

As they went on, Hatter realized that each person who sat at the table was there because they deserved it. Emma especially impressed him as she read, it was much better than her audition and Hatter assumed that she must had redone it. Kris was also impressive, his nerdy persona evaporating into nothingness and replaced with an arrogant yet loving air about him as he read. Daniel was hilarious, and his ability to switch from the characters Merlyn and Pellinore with such ease was incredible. However, none of them did as well as Adam. Who, like the previous time Hatter was with him, truly became King Arthur. They read smoothly for the most part, only stopping when Katherine would mention who would sing what, or explain what was going to be going on, such as when Hatter and Kris's shadows would be seen when Merlyn talked about his visions of the dangers of Mordred and Lancelot. It wasn't until Adam began his speech about being a king but also a man, and how he was going to ignore Lancelot and Guenevere's affair completely did Hatter realize that Mordred had yet to make an appearance in the play, in person and not in the shadows as a old wizard's vision. Hatter had thought that Mordred was a main character, the villain. Why wasn't he in the story yet?

"And that's the end of the First Act!" Katherine said when Adam was finished. "It's late so let's stop for tonight and pick up at the beginning of Act Two tomorrow." She must have seen the look on Hatter's face as he flipped through the script confused for she added. "At the very beginning of Act Two is Mordred's introduction and when Arthur's troubles really take a turn for the worse."

"Thanks a lot, David!" Adam teased as he closed his script. "You're going to ruin my peaceful rule!"

"Technically," Hatter said as the others snickered and followed Adam's example. "You've ruined it for yourself, for lettin' your wife sleep around, yeah?"

They all laughed as they stood up to clear out. Katherine handed them practice schedules as they put on their jackets. Hatter was very surprised that almost two hours had passed and it was now early evening. Looking down at his schedule, Hatter realized he had practice every day, late afternoon or early evening, right before the chorus was scheduled to practice. He wondered if Alice would actually be willing to help in the shop as she said she would once she saw this schedule. Hatter doubted she would say anything. Still, by the looks of this schedule Hatter was going to be running ragged, with Alice's help or not. It was going to be an interesting three months.

A/N:

I hope you enjoyed reading Chapter Two as much as I enjoyed writing it! Hatter's in for a fun time!

I apologize for all of the people Hatter had to meet but I felt it was necessary. Just a fun fact, they are all loosely inspired by the actual people in my high school's production of Camelot so kudos to them for being awesome. But don't think that you met a bunch of worthless people just now. They'll have bigger parts once Hatter begins practicing with them.

So yeah, enough of my rambling. Please review!

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving!