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The Jack-bashers won't like this one so well, but Jack's greatest sin was lying. And that was it.

Chapter 4

As Alice and Jack rode through the hill country, a hard silence stood between them like a glass wall. She stole glances at the prince as they went on, wondering what was really on his mind. And wondering about all that had gone on between them before. She'd always thought he was from some prep school, with the way he acted back in her world. Always so tense and up-tight. She'd excused it with the theory that that was how he was raised, but now she knew better. He was always worried about getting me to help him convert Dad back to normal. From Carpenter to Robert Hamilton. Was any of it real? Was that why he purposed so soon?

Six weeks was far too short a time to know each other to even think about marriage. So then why had he done it? It hurt to think that the only reason a handsome man had popped the question to her was to due to Caterpillar's orders to hurry up in bringing her over to Wonderland. She tried to ignore the dull sting of it, and focused on keeping her seat on the horse.

They soon found the small stream and let the horses stop to drink. Hatter would like it here. Its a pretty stream. She found herself thinking more and more about Hatter, what he would say about something, or the faces he'd make if he saw this or that. Does that mean I'm mad about Hatter, or mad as a hatter? Splashing some of the dust off her face with water, she looked up at Jack. "So, are you ever going to tell me about the Duchess?"

He looked at her and looked away again. "She's my mother's creature. An arrangement. I have no feelings for her nor she for me." He paused as if choosing his words carefully, "Alice, my heart belongs to you completely. You do believe me, don't you?"

It was the hesitance, that pause, that was the last nail in the coffin of their relationship. My god. Every last bit of it was a lie. How did I not see this before? The renewed anger she felt at that thought was enough to make her want to get up and kick him someplace that guaranteed he'd never have an heir! How could he do this to her? She thought he'd loved her, but it was all part of his mission for the Resistance, just like she'd thought when she'd been at the Hospital.

What gave him the right to mess with her emotions like this?! Couldn't he have just found a way to keep the Stone away from his mother in Wonderland? Why did he have to lie to her?! Okay, she wouldn't have believed him without proof, but he had the watch! That would have been all the proof she'd have needed! Why, why did he have to lie?

That hot anger was suddenly washed away by a wave of pity as she thought of what his reasons must have been. She remembered what she'd thought about as she'd laid in the bed at Charlie's camp, the long hours she'd put in trying to figure out why so much had happened both in the past, present, and quasi-future. Jack had figured heavily into all that, as he had brought the most baggage with him. It hit her how hard it must have been for him, too.

His family tried to kill him, while they're destroying his home, so he goes to the only people that can help him and they ship him off to another world with a stolen ring that automatically made him a traitor to his own family. Then he has to convince me to help him somehow, and the engagement was probably the only thing he could think of. Still doesn't make it a good reason for lying, but that makes it a bit easier to swallow. While she was aways off from forgiving him for lying to her, she found that she couldn't be angry with him for his reasons. Those, at least, had good intentions behind them.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

She gave him a look that wasn't unkind. "No, Jack, I don't believe it. There can't be love without some form of trust, and you gave me none. You never told me the truth"--

"You know me better than any other person alive!" Jack said, hurt. "You know what I like to read, and talk about, and what my favorite color is, she never asked about any of that!! No one ever bothered to see Jack Heart, just Prince Jack! But you, Alice, I showed Jack Heart to you, just by a different name! Does that mean nothing to you?"

She closed her eyes against the pain on his face. But what about the Duchess? She thought back to when they'd defeated the Queen, and the look on Duchess's face as she'd been lifted in a happy embrace by the Prince. The look on Jack's face when he'd looked back at the blonde caught Alice's attention. For one moment, he'd looked--happy? Ecstatic even, and then he had seemed to shake himself and let go of her, moving off to help some of the Suits with his mother.

'She never asked about that!' His mother's creature, yeah right. You lied about loving me, but I think you were lying about loving someone else to yourself. Something was between those two. Maybe it was love, unrequited. But on his side, it seemed, no matter what he thought. "No, Jack, it does mean something. But I think I'm not the one you wanted to introduce Jack Heart to."

"What?" he asked, almost backing away in frightened confusion.

"Answer me this," Alice said softly. "You came to my world as part of your mission, but there was another reason, too. I can see it in your eyes. Who were you really running from, Jack? Your mother, or Duchess?"

His blue eyes went wide in realization, and something like pain, and then he looked away from her. "See? You do know me, better than anyone else," he said almost bitterly. "We need to get going, or we'll run late."

"Alright," she said, getting back on the horse. He looked pensive as they rode, so she left him to his thoughts. He looked like he had a lot to sort out.

As they rode, neither noticed the brown horse on the top of the ridge above them, nor its rider. Hatter watched over them as they traveled, unable to stop the harsh pain that stabbed his heart as he saw them together. She wants to come back to me, she wants to come back to me, she said she wants her father to meet me, he repeated her words in his head over and over, and it helped to lessen the pain.

A sudden flash, like sunlight on armor, caught his eye, and he scowled. That old man just couldn't take a hint, could he? He changed course to catch up to the knight. He finally caught up to him, his horse nearly rearing back in fright. "Charlie!"

"By the Ghost, you nearly scared me half to death!" Charlie said, trying to soothe his horse.

"You're following them," Hatter accused him.

"So are you!" the knight accused right back. Hatter couldn't help but shake his head at being a hypocrite, and the other man understood it immediately. "And don't you shake your head at me! When you asked to borrow Guinevere, you said you were going to hide out in the hills. Well, these are not the hills!"

There's no reasoning with this guy. "C'mon then," Hatter said, turning his horse to follow after them.

The White Knight couldn't take the boy's attitude anymore. "What is your problem?"

"What?" Hatter asked, looking back at him.

"Your problem. What is it?" Charlie asked. "That girl loves you, you know that, don't you?"

"What? No. No, she doesn't love me." She couldn't love a guy like me. "Like me, yes, but not--I mean--I heard her say she likes me! But that's all it is, Charlie! Like." He ruthlessly stomped down the hope that kept building in his heart. She doesn't love me, couldn't love some common guy like me. She has a prince at her beck and call.

Charlie sent him a flat look. "Oh yes, certainly. Its commonly expected for one to scream at princes out of a mere feeling of like. One defies the will of royalty every day for someone that they basically 'like.' Its done all the time, surely."

Hatter scowled at the knight. "Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Charlie. Besides, she--she deserves bett'r. She deserves to be a Queen. What can I offer her? Huh? A broke-down Tea Shoppe? Always being looked down on for consortin' with a guy like me?

"No, Charlie," Hatter shook his head. "She's better off with him."

"Lie to yourself all you want, Harbinger," the knight said. "In the end, it all will come down to the lady's choice. And I, for one, think she might surprise you." Hatter had no reply for that, and they continued on the road.