Jefferson woke with a slight crick in his neck, but close to no pain in his shoulder blade. Crossing his arm over, he ran his fingers over the spot. He rolled his shoulder a few times, sore, but more than functional, and after yesterday, that was a vast improvement. Long strands of blonde over in his bed caught him off-guard until he remembered. A few rays of dawn seeped in through the windows, creating tiny square sun spots on the cottage floor.

"How's the leg?" he asked Alice after he noticed her stretching.

"Still tender, but much better."

They ate in silence, she studied her maps, and then they journeyed to her rented room so she could change. He'd never been up to her room before, a hard-wood-floored box with a bed and a basin, two little windows, and colorful sketches of flowers and butterflies sprawled all over the place. A dress hung on a nail here and there, not as many as he'd imagined she had, though. She changed behind a screen, a naked arm raking in a pair of shoes from underneath the bed. In a matter of minutes, she was dressed in a simple emerald dress with her hair braided up into a loose bun.

"Is that what you're wearing?" she asked when she stepped out from behind the screen.

"Because what, we're supposed to match or something?"

"Well, you said we were crashing the wedding. If we don't look our best, aren't we giving ourselves away?"

Not sure if he was more offended at not looking his best or that she seemed completely oblivious to the fact she'd just insulted him, he leaned back against the door and folded his arms.

"And how do you know this isn't my best?"

"I don't. But you wore most of that yesterday. I think you'd be wearing the shirt too if it didn't have blood all over it."

"So you're going to be embarrassed to be seen with me at a wedding where we don't know anyone in a world we're not even from? How vain."

"And how manic of you to say so, Mr. Hatter," she snapped. "We should go ahead and go so we're not late."

"Such good advice. It's a shame you seldom follow it yourself."

"Manic and smug. It's a wonder you made time to size me up at all," she said.

"I'm just trying to figure out what sort of dark creature dreamed you up."

"You'd have to be half mad to dream me up anyway," she muttered. Considering it self-deprecation, Jefferson spun the hat with extra panache and they jumped into it without looking at the other.

The spring smells of clover and wisteria and lavender clung to the air, along with the heady aroma of pies setting out, waiting for the reception. Jefferson and Alice sat in the back of a crowded outdoor wedding ceremony with the clearest of skies hanging over them. He'd been to several parts of Middle Earth but found the Shire possessed the most natural beauty, and it appeared Alice had drawn the same conclusion, looking more at the lush mounds of grass, fat sunflowers, and thick winding apple trees than at the stout, leather-soled couple at the altar.

She did whirl her head around for the annunciation and the first kiss between a husband and wife and, Jefferson did a double take, tears welled in her eyes. Clapping along with the rest of the guests, her head angled in satisfaction and happiness. And she'd called him manic, he thought, sulking.

The reception was also outdoors with round wooden tables and fireworks. The Hobbits had strung lanterns around the field, their gold hue melding with the pink sunset. If crashing weddings was even taboo in their culture, no one there minded two humans attending the festivities. Alice actually conversed with a few of them, asking questions about the land and the recipe of the pork pie set before them. An innkeeper with more money than he knew what to do with, in Jefferson's opinion, hired him to bring back the most scrumptious pork pie ever made in order to copy the recipe. This one, seasoned with nutmeg, mace, and raisins, could not be beat. Tempted as he was to take a bite, he asked the nearest server to place it in a container for him to take on the road. Flutes and fiddles played in the background as several Hobbits stood to dance, clapping and moving about in a folksy, yet contagious way. Natural, simple beauty, Jefferson thought.

Alice stood. He held his breath, cringing at the idea of her asking him to dance with her. Instead, she wandered past the lanterns and towards the open field. Wait, why the hell had she not asked him to dance? Wait, why are you running after her? He slowed to a walk and found her kneeling over a dark patch of the field.

"Lost?"

"No, I...I'm sorry. I haven't really been able to express my gratitude, for the job, the maps, all the new experiences, so...I wondered if I might be able to teach you something? Make it a fair trade?"

He knelt down next to her and watched her uproot a mushroom. Cupping it in her hands, she opened them and showed him the glowing gills. Thinking at first it was a reflection of the fireworks or the lanterns, he looked again and touched them.

"They're poisonous," she said. "These aren't lethal, but what makes them so bad is how good they smell." She held it up closer to him. "Yet take a bite of these and the cramps that follow are amazingly painful. Vomiting, diarrhea—and believe it or not, there are people tempted to eat them a second time. It looks very much like other mushrooms that are harmless, but if you peel the stem..." She took out a small pocket knife and began to cut. "The inside of this one is orange and the others are white."

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"I once worked in a tea shop," she said, still holding the mushroom out to him. "I'd brew different kinds of tea and make some of the treats people could order. I used a particular kind of mushroom to make crepes, and, one day when I was out gathering them, I confused the two. I peeled it back in the kitchen, but didn't think it made any difference. Well, a man became sick and I was fired, and I'd been looking for a job ever since."

"How long?"

"About a year. I was starting to really worry. My parents...I was cut off for being careless, but mostly for soiling their good name. So a rich girl with no practical skills and a reputation for poisoning people...all led me to you."

There really wasn't much to say, he thought, hundreds of responses rejected in his mind. She made sense now, just someone out to prove herself who made sure she still took the time to admire all the pretty things life had to offer.

"Did the man forgive you?"

"Yes."

"That should have been enough to satisfy everyone else." Clearing his throat, he took the mushroom from her. "You said it's often confused for an edible mushroom. Is that one here?"

Smiling at him, she nodded and strolled over to another patch in the field lit by stars and fireworks.

"Stay out here," he said to her, outside the Dark Castle. It lived up to its name, especially after spending time in Middle Earth. Alice wrinkled her brow at him.

"You don't think I can take care of myself?"

"Not many can when Rumpelstiltskin's involved," he said. "The less he knows, the better."

"You said you've worked for him before. If he's so dangerous..."

"Yes, but the pay is really, really good," he emphasized, tilting his head back. "So far we have this nice arrangement where there are no questions asked on either end and I'd prefer to keep it that way. If he knows what I'm able to do now that you're here, that might raise some questions. So..." He looked over at her just in time to see her pout. "Stay here and wait for me?"

"That's all I ever do," she sighed.

"By your design," he added, knowing full well the front door of the Dark Castle might not have been the best place to start arguing. "What? It was your idea, you've never asked to go get anything on your own."

"Never mind. Go. I'll be out here."

Rapacious woman, he thought. It wouldn't be that off the mark to presume she would leave of her own accord if deprived of the chance to move forward with her...training, he supposed. Anyone could do what she does, so it's only natural she'd want to do more. You'll have to think of something.

Offhand, passing through the corridors and stairs of the castle didn't create a sense of dread so much as disapproval, cobwebs and layers of dust. Rumpelstiltskin took most victims, er, clients, in his library upstairs, through creaking floorboards, old relics that hadn't been touched...or cleaned, in years, perhaps decades. And even now Jefferson was sure the Dark One knew he was there, just too preoccupied with whatever to come meet him anywhere.

"Don't most castles have a receiving room or something, for seeking audience or..."

"Well, well, well, on time, I see. Word has it you're doing very well lately." Rumpelstiltskin sprang up from his table full of tubes and bottles and shot him a grin. Jefferson returned it.

"What can I get for you?" he asked.

"You've looked everywhere you're able to go, every little nook and cranny of one magical world after another and still nothing?" He paced around him, and to the uninitiated, it would be intimidating, but Jefferson remembered who had the upper hand.

"I've told you before, if I knew a way to get a magic bean, I'd get it to you."

"Then I need something similar. Something that can take someone from one realm..." He placed his hands on the edge of the table. "To another." Flicking them up like they'd touched a hot poker, he moved them to the other side. "And another, and another, and another if need be."

"I think I know of something that can do that," Jefferson said, trying to match him for mystery. "If I can get it?"

"The gold, dearie! Thought that was all you wanted."

"And if I can't get it? I'm not interested in some kind of 'monkey's paw' fate where you find some creative way to punish me." Don't give him any examples, he warned himself.

"Now why would I go and do such a thing?" He placed his hand over his heart.

"That's the nature of your deals."

"Ah, but this is no deal. This is business, similar, but no. A deal requires two interested parties to uphold their ends of the bargain. Business is just that. Business," he hissed. "You either get me what I want or you don't." Jefferson opened his mouth to reassure him, but Rumpelstiltskin continued, growing ever closer, and that was never something one could get completely used to. "Trick of the trade, Hatter, spies make for bad business." With a snap of his fingers, a large bookshelf vanished into thin air to reveal Alice.

"Really?" Jefferson blurted at her.

"So...it's true, an assistant that can go to a world while you bring someone here. I shouldn't have doubted." Clapping his hands together, Rumpelstiltskin approached her.

"I'm sure we can find what you need," Alice said, and Jefferson had to admire that she held her hand out offering the Dark One a handshake.

"You know, since you're getting so good you've decided to expand, I think I have two jobs for you."

"Is it twice the gold?" Jefferson asked.

"Oh, it's twice the gold, provided you do it. I myself have an apprentice who is rather in need of some motivation. Tell me what you know off the top of that foppish head about people who claim to bring the dead back to life."

"Back to life?"

"Tick tock, dearie."

"Nothing. Dead is dead. It's not like go to a world with rain, come back and there's a rainbow..." His hands, formerly searching for shapes in the air, froze. "There's a place that has something close to that."

"I didn't ask 'close,'" Rumpelstiltskin sang. "We're not playing horseshoes."

"What would you need this person for?"

"More details to come, but I need an agreement first."

"Just how did you get in there?" he asked Alice, hustling out of the castle and starting towards home.

"I climbed up the vines until I saw an opened window." She shrugged. "I told you I was curious."

"You know, I bet he knew you were in there the whole time."

"I don't think he cared," she said after a beat.

A/N: Again several Alice quotes in this chapter. The mushroom this is based on is the jack o'lantern mushroom, which I found actually does have glowing gills, is poisonous, and can be confused for edible chanterelle.

Okay, you probably can figure out where the next chapter will be, but here's a hint anyway: this famous land features in a book series and is divided up into four quadrants with a color schema, red, blue, yellow, and purple. It is bordered all the way around by a desert and if you're wondering what color our world is supposed to be, it's gray. The movie doesn't really address any of this.