Hey! This is going to be the last chapter of "To My Dearest and Loveliest Alice," but I'm going to write an epilogue that's probably going to be up sometime later today.

Once again, I want to thank all who reviewed, favorite, and followed this story! Honestly, I was kind of expecting to get one, maybe two reviews on this, since it was my first story and I'm not that experienced with this.

Disclaimer: I don't own AIW. At all. Sad for me.

Tarrant couldn't find the letter anywhere. He had first searched the old windmill, where he had written the letter. Then, he had looked for it outside, all around, over, under, and on top of the tea table. Still unable to find it, he had searched in the woods surrounding the table. It was nowhere to be found!

As he sat down in his armchair in despair, he remembered something. He hadn't seen Mally since she had gone inside to check on the Earl Grey tea. He wondered where she had gone.

Just then, he spotted her coming up the pathway toward the clearing that the table and the old windmill were in.

"Mally!" he called to her. She looked at him with wide eyes, and then dashed in the opposite direction.

"Mally!" he shouted, running after her. When he finally caught up to her (she was a very fast mouse) he leaned down and scooped her up in his hand.

"Oi! Ya know Ah don' like I' when ya pick me up unless it's ya 'at!" she shouted. "Put me down, 'atta!"

"Wha're ya doin' runnin' away fro' meh?" he asked her as calmly as he could. He knew that his eyes had gone a bit orange, and he had to keep very calm if he didn't want to go off in a rage of madness.

"Nothin', 'atta," she told him quickly.

"It don' look like ah nothin'," he said angrily, "Ah kno' wha' a nothin' look's lik', an' tha's definitely a sumthin'."

"'atta, before I tell ya, ya need ta calm down and put me on the ground, alri'?"

The Hatter closed his eyes and willed his temper back. He felt his eyes turn back to his normal lime green.

"Alright, Mally. I'm calm now," he lisped, putting her down. Without Alice, he had had to learn how to control his temper on his own, lest he hurt someone.

"Alri' 'atta," she said nervously, "Ya see, when I went inside ta check on the tea, I saw a paper on the ground. I opened it up, an' I saw tha' I' was a letta. I read i', and then brought it ta Mirana, ta send ta Alice."

The Hatter stared at Mally for a few seconds, his eyes once again becoming orange, before sprinting off in the direction of Mamoreal.

It was two o'clock in the morning, Margret was screaming her head off. Alice was trying to calm her down while Mother was going to call for a doctor.

"Margret! You must calm down! Please! The doctor will be here soon and then it will be over! You have already woken up the entire house, you don't need to wake up all of London, as well!"

"I'm sorry, Alice! I just-" And with that, she started screaming again.

Alice collapsed in a chair next to the bed. When will the doctor get here so that Margret can stop screaming her bloody head off and I can get back to sleep?

But Alice didn't think she could go back to sleep because after Margret's baby was born, she could finally return to Underland.

There was a knock on the bedroom door and her mother and a doctor entered the bedroom. Margret quieted her screams, but she wasn't able to hold in a whimper or two on occasion.

"Hello. My name is Doctor Harrison," the man said in a snobby voice.

This is going to be a long night, Alice thought.

When Hatter reached the large gates of Mamoreal, the guards stopped him.

"Please state your name and business."

Hatter forced himself to calm down before he spoke. "Tarrant Hightopp, I must speak with the Queen at once."

As soon as there was a gap in the gates large enough for him to fit through, he sprinted in and up the stairs of the palace. He reached the doors to Mirana's office after sprinting up and down stairs and hallways for at least fifteen minutes (he had not been in the palace that many times, and he didn't have a good sense of direction). He pounded on the doors and heard a dainty "Please come in."

"Mirana, did you receive a letter from Mally recently?" he asked urgently.

"Why yes I did, Tarrant. It was from you, actually. Oh, it was one of the sweetest things I have ever read, and so I sent it to Alice straight away!"

"You… sent it to… to Alice?"

"Yes! Are you not happy?" she asked, frowning.

"You see, Your Majesty, I had never intended to send that letter! I wanted Alice to come back on her own and for me to tell her those things in person."

"Oh, my! Tarrant, I am so sorry! If you hurry, there may still be a chance that she hasn't read it. You may use my mirror to transport yourself. Just think of Alice, and it should take you to wherever she is."

Without a goodbye or a thank you (he was in too much of a hurry, and he decided that he would say goodbye and thank you later) he leaped through the mirror.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room, Miss Kingsley," Dr. Harrison said in his awful, nasally voice.

"Why?" Alice snapped at him.

"It is not proper for anyone to be in the room with Mrs. Manchester except for Mrs. Kingsley and myself."

"You won't let me help my sister through labor because it's not proper?"

"Exactly so. Now into the hallway with you, please."

Throwing up her hands in defeat, Alice stomped into the hallway. She decided that since she wasn't going to be let back into the room, she might as well get something to eat, so she walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. She wasn't worried about the cook yelling at her to get out, she was too tired and annoyed for that.

As she opened one of the cabinets, she heard a crash and an "ouch!" from the dining room. Poking her head through the doorway, she saw a man in a pile on the floor, along with the decorative vases that were on the mantle.

It wasn't until she had walked up to the man and helped him to get back on his feet that she saw who he was.

"Tarrant?" she breathed.

He smiled. "Alice, it's you! Mirana told me that if I went through the mirror and I thought of you, then I would appear where you were, but-"

"Hatter!"

"I'm fine," he choked out. Then his eyes widened. "Alice! You remember me!"

"Like I said, how could I forget?"

"Alice, I have to tell you something. You see, I wrote a letter to you, only I never wanted to send it, then I lost it and it got sent, and I have to tell you that I love you before you read the letter!"

"Tarrant? I… I've already read the letter. I'm sorry," she said sadly.

His face fell and he stared at his shoes. "I had meant to tell you in person."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. I suppose that it's not much of anyone's fault."

"Tarrant, I love you, too."

He looked up. "Don't say that just to make me feel better, Alice."

"I'm not just saying it," Alice said, gathering her muchness. "I love you."

"You're sure?" he asked quietly.

"Yes."

And then he pulled her against him and he kissed her. It was like he was trying to put all of his love into that one kiss, which he was. She kissed him back with the same enthusiasm.

He was the first to pull away. "Ah luv ya, Mah Ahlice. Will ye come bac' ta Underlan'… wi' meh?"

"Yes."

He smile was so big, Chessur would have been jealous.

"My Alice," he whispered, his accent gone.

"Yes?"

"I would ask to leave straight away, but I'm curious. What is all that screaming?"

She laughed. "I have a sister, Margret, who is currently upstairs, giving birth."

"That would explain it."

She smiled. "Can I stay, just until my niece or nephew is born?"

"Of course, My Alice."

"Tarrant? If I may ask, what are my mother's vases doing all over the floor?"

"I arrived through that mirror," he explained, pointing at the decorative mirror on top of the mantle, "and these poor vases were in my way."

Just then, the screaming stopped. "Wait here," Alice said, running out of the room.

Alice gently knocked on Margret's door. "Come in," she heard from inside.

She opened the door and saw a very tired Margret sitting up on the bed, a whimpering baby in her arms. "Alice, meet your niece, Victoria Anne Manchester."

Alice smiled and turned to her mother. "Mother, I'm going to go away for a while. I don't know when I'll be back,"

Her mother looked away from the baby in Margret's arms. "Where are you going, Alice?"

"I can't tell you. At least, not yet."

Whoo! That was fun to write. Like I said at the top of the page, an epilogue will be coming soon. Don't forget to R&R!

~SquirmberryJuice