EIGHT

(the bedchamber assigned to Miss Abby Maitland)

Abby did in fact lie down and try to nap. She was relieved to be away from Hatter. He made her skin crawl.

Why? she wondered. What was it about the man? It wasn't just that he was identical to Connor, she can handle identical twins for goodness's sake – even though they really weren't twins. Certainly not his fashion sense – if anything, the man was more outrageous than Connor, and it seemed to be deliberate, unlike Connor's sometimes absently put together looks.

It wasn't his wife. Alice was a lovely person, really. Smart and confident and capable, it seemed.

Confidence. That's what it was. Hatter moved, spoke, acted, with utter self-confidence, a quality that Connor completely lacked. Connor stumbled through life on sheer luck and the tolerance of those around him. And seeing a confident strong version of Connor was… disconcerting.

And just a little bit tantalizing, which was an admission she would only ever make in her head. What would Connor be like with a touch of that self-confidence? Connor always stood in someone else's shadow; Cutter's, Stephen's, even hers. What would he be like if he could walk about utterly at ease with himself? His lack of confidence was a like a red flag waving, geek here, do not expect any sort of competence with social interactions!

And yet….

And yet Connor had charged through an anomaly into the unknown, to chase after her. He'd battled monsters for her. He'd held on after she told him to let go, refusing because….

And yet the mental image of a Connor that could grin, and tease, and have the sort of confident poise that Hatter had, was terribly……

Abby huffed, rolling over and jabbing the pillow to adjust it. She needed sleep.


NINE

(the bedchamber assigned to Connor Temple)

Connor figured, his room, his bath, and so he indulged in a shower. After all, he shared a flat with a girl, he didn't get to take long hot showers often.

He stood in the middle of the room wondering if he should check the closet, or if his own clothes would be alright for a Wonderland Feast – what would the menu look like? – when there was a knock at the door.

"Hang on!" he called, quickly yanking on trousers and his vest.

When he opened the door, his jaw dropped. The Hatter was there, juggling hats. It appeared to be at least seven hats. When Connor took a startled step back, Hatter walked right through the doorway, smoothly, neither halting the juggling, nor losing a hat.

"Right, if you're gonna get pegged as a Hatter, you've got to have a hat, yeah? Pick one!" Hatter announced cheerfully. He himself wore some sort of flat-topped thing, not quite a top hat, black with a green band. Of course, his trousers were black, his coat a dark purple, and his silk shirt some wild pattern of green and gold. It shouldn't have worked. He looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie.

"What? Do I need to wear a hat for the feast?" Connor asked, entranced by Hatter's juggling skills.

"No, of course not, but I reckon you'll get called 'Hatter' at least half the night, you might as well have a hat."

"But… if I don't wear a hat, won't that make it easier for people to tell us apart?"

"Ah, but why would we want to make it easy on them?" Hatter's grin was everything cocky and mischievous.

"Er.. does Alice know about this?"

"Here, now!" Hatter said, dismay in his voice. He deftly tossed each hat, lining them up neatly on the bed. "Don't go raining on my picnic."

"Parade, you mean."

"No, I mean picnic! Besides, what my delightful, sweet, understanding wife doesn't know…"

"Will get us both smacked, probably," Connor finished.

Hatter pouted. "You are no fun."

Connor sighed, looking from his double, who clearly was determined to work out some sort of prank, to the hats on the bed. Oh, what the hell, he decided. "How about the gray fedora?"

Hatter grinned, then bounced over to the closet. Flinging it open, he laughed. "Just as I expected! Everything the suits have tried to foist on me, that I've refused to wear is in here!" He started pulling out suits in black, white, red, navy, pinstripe. There were solid colored shirts hanging in there as well. All things that even Connor would have instantly recognized as too boring for the flamboyant Hatter.

"Not red!" Connor objected instantly to one suit, and Hatter's crooked grin made Connor realized he'd fallen in with the mad man's plans, hook, line, and sinker.

"That's fine, Jack will be wearing red. The Red King, he is, and King of Hearts too. Let's see…."

"Just a black suit, and a white shirt," Connor requested.

"Boooring!" Hatter sang out, but Connor stood firm.

"Look, I'll wear my own waistcoat, and scarf with it. And the fedora."

Hatter sighed but conceded defeat. "Alright, then. If you must." He threw himself into an armchair and waved a hand at Connor.

Connor frowned.

"Well, go on. Get dressed." Hatter ordered.

Connor hesitated. He'd just thrown on clothing when Hatter knocked, so he didn't have on boxers and was not about to drop trous in front of what was essentially a stranger. "As soon as you leave."

"Leave?" Hatter sat up. "If I leave, you might change your mind about the hat! And we look excellent in hats, you know that. And it's not like you've got anything I wouldn't have."

"Alright, really. You absolutely cannot start in with the whole two-halves-of-the-same-person thing, yeah? Alice will kill you, Abby will never speak to me again."

Hatter cocked his head to peer at Connor, suddenly serious. "You think?"

"Yes, I do think Alice will kill you. Isn't she always telling you to be nice?'

"No, I mean, you really think Abby won't speak to you again?"

Connor rolled his eyes. "It's a distinct possibility." At Hatter's silent request for more information, Connor sighed heavily and sat on the bed. "She runs all… hot and cold. Sometimes I'll think things are going well between us, and it gets my hopes up, and then she'll snap at me and chew me out for the slightest offense. I mean…" Connor waved his hands about in exasperation. "Who doesn't like warm socks, yeah? And if the oven is going to be on anyway, why not use the warming drawer?"

Hatter grinned. "I think we're more alike than even Alice suspects."

Connor smiled back. "So then, how did you manage to win Alice's heart?"

With a shrug, Hatter answered, "I just kept chasing after her, whether she wanted rescuing or not. I suppose she finally just let me catch her."


to be continued