Madam Chapelier
By: The Mistress~
Aleese closed her eyes and rested her head on the seat behind her, glad this cabby wasn't trying to chat her up like the first one, she just wanted to rest and get her mind off of her childhood. She shuddered at the memories that wanted to consume her. She tried to think of anything else and ended up thinking of the last person she'd visited before Bo, her friend Tabitha. Tabitha had to help her on one of her special 'little missions'. And really it was a piece of cake getting into that high tech museum with Tabitha's help, and the old creep that hired her had paid quite handsomely for her to 'acquire' that painting, which in her opinion had been ugly and fairly tacky, but hey she never claimed to be a fan of Mister Da Vinci. He may be famous but she always thought his works looked bleak and colorless, like he only used about four or five muted colors in all of his paintings. She much preferred artists like Mary Cassatt for her wonderful use of colors, making her paintings bright and vibrant and wonderful to look at and William Merritt Chase for his superb portraits. He worked in all media but Aleese loved his portraits of people the most, the expressions and poses were lovely and always managed to catch her eye.
"Hey lady! Wake up we're here!" The gruff voice of the cab driver broke her of her thoughts of beautiful painting and the artists who did them. She thanked the man and paid him (she still some money from her little mission left over, but she'll have to take another job soon) before grabbing her things and heading into the quant little bed and breakfast. The place was warm and cozy, making her feel comfortable and at ease. She rang the little bell at the front desk and a moment later an old woman shuffled into view from the back where she heard a tv game show on. She gave the kind old woman the name Brighton and was given the key to her room. The old lady informed her that if she should need anything to simply find her or use the phone in the room to call the desk. Aleese smiled at the lady and headed to the little elevator to go to her floor.
She got to her room with no problem and after setting her things at the foot of the bed she flopped down on the couch with a sigh. Aleese looked around the room she'd be staying in for the next few days or so and noticed it was just as cozy as the lobby. The room was decorated in warm browns and reds with splashes of gold throughout. It had a soothing old time feel to it that she really liked. She absentmindedly fumbled around the couch and finally her hand brushed against cool plastic; the remote. Just as she was about to turn on the tv and watch some nice mind warping television she heard a loud noise from outside the window. Instead of ignoring it and assuming it was nothing she got up and went to the window to check it out.
What she saw in the alley two stories below her window was so far from what she expected to see she nearly busted out into mad laughter, but she didn't, she just stared in shock. There were two men fighting outside in the wide alley. Now that's not in any way unusual but the fact one of the men was in a top hat and spats while the other was dressed like a giant bat might have tipped the scales into the weird side. But really all she could think was, 'I know when I'd call Bo she'd said there were lots of crazies running around in Gotham but I never really took her seriously!' she smiled when the top hat guy tucked and rolled out of the way of a bat shaped boomerang thing the crazy bat guy threw at him, all without mussing his shiny hat or dirtying his dark blue coat.
'Impressive.' She thought idly. Her eyes widened when the bat guy managed to land a punch right in top hat guys mouth. He started coughing and blood spattered the pavement below him. The bat guy grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and slammed him roughly into the wall right below her window. Aleese watched as the bat guy punched top hat guy over and over. He was seriously hurting him. He didn't even need to hit him anymore, he wasn't fighting back at all. Aleese was disgusted with the bat guy and decided to help out top hat guy. 'He really looks like he could use all the help he could get!' she thought with mild alarm. She frantically looked around her room and spotted a potted plant on the coffee table and hefted it up and over to the window.
She peeked out the window and saw that bat guy was still waling on poor top hat guy. Aleese narrowed her eyes at the bat dressed bastard and without an ounce of regret she angled the pot just right and dropped it. She grinned in satisfaction when it met its intended mark; right on bat dicks cowl covered head. Bat guy wobbled a bit before falling back into an unconscious heap. Top hat guy sagged against the wall and slowly looked up and locked eyes with Aleese. She smiled and waved at him. He slowly, almost timidly raised his hand in a small wave back. Aleese frowned and spoke up softly but loudly enough to where he could hear her "Stay there okay? I'm going to come down and help you, you look really hurt." Without further preamble she came back in the window, grabbed her room key and rushed to the elevator. When she got to the lobby she quietly walked by the front desk and noticed the lady from earlier was in the back sleeping in front of a little tv.
She stepped out into the cool night air and rushed to the alley on the left of the building. There leaning against the wall was top hat guy bleeding from the nose and mouth and coughing up speckles of blood into his white gloved hand. She rushed over to him, carefully stepping over bat guy, to check and see if he would be okay. She gently touched a blood and bruise free area of his face to get his attention and when he looked at her she smiled and whispered, "Hey~ Are you okay? No that's a stupid question, you're obviously not okay, you're bleeding and barely conscious. Do you want me to take you to the hospital?" He quickly shook his head 'no' but then groaned in pain from the movement. Aleese pursed her lips and sighed. "Okay then no hospital, but you're coming back with me to my room so I can at least clean you up. No buts!"
Without giving him any time to object she threw his arm over her petit shoulder and pulled him towards the front of the hotel. They got inside the lobby but he'd started coughing and Aleese heard the front desk lady stir from her sleep. "Shhhhh!" She shushed him and practically dragged him onto the elevator before they could be caught. The ascent was quiet save for his groans of pain and light coughs. She safely got them both into her room and led him over to the couch and sat him down. She told him to stay there and went to get a bowl of warm water and some hand towels. She was filling the bowl with steamy warm water and thinking about just what top hat guy could have done to piss bat guy off so bad he'd try to beat him to death. When the bowl was ¾ full she grabbed a couple hand towels and went back to the couch and sat next to top hat guy. 'I should probably get his name a stop calling him top hat guy.' She thought with amusement. She dipped one of the small towels into the water and rung it out before sitting up on her knees on the couch next to top hat guy and bringing the wet rag to his face.
"This might hurt but I've got to get you cleaned off." She very gently started wiping the wet and almost dried blood from his face. She was so focused on her task she didn't notice him staring intensely at her with an almost dazed look in his eye. He continued watching her clean him up almost tenderly before he was snapped back into focus by her voice.
"So Mister Top-Hat guy what's your name?" she asked with a sweet smile on her face. He hesitated in answering; he didn't want to scare her off by telling her who he really was. After all no sane woman wants to be anywhere near The Mad Hatter.
Aleese frowned and figured he was shy or nervous so she decided to try and keep the conversation going. "Well my name is Aleese in case you were wondering." She went to exchange the now bloody cloth with a new clean one and missed the widening of his eyes at hearing her name.
'Her name is Aleese? That's practically the French form of Alice! Oh what if she is 'my Alice'?! After finding out Miss Pleasance was nothing but an Alice imposter I'd nearly given up hope of finding my true Alice! But there may still be hope yet! I need to know more about this "Aleese". He thought with wild excitement.
Aleese jumped at hearing her name spoken abruptly behind her. She turned from ringing out the new towel and asked, "Yes?" Top hat guy blushed and looked down at his lap; he hadn't realized he'd said her name out loud. He looked up sharply when he heard her giggle.
"You're cute, you know that?" she said with a flirty smile curving her pink lips upward. His eyes widened rather comically while his embarrassed blush grew. She continued to clean him up, giggling every now and then at how he was still blushing. When she was done he cleared his throat to get her attention and said softly while looking at the wall behind her, "My name is Jervis."
TBC!
A/N: And finally Jervis shows up! But unfortunately so does Batdick. *dramatic sigh* Why can't he leave the villains of the Gallery alone? Always gotta go and bother them. Oh well. Review for me my lovelies. Please and thank you! *huggles*
~The Mistress, XOXO