TWO – King

Hatter hated to shave. Clean-shaven, he looked even younger than he usually did. Most Wonderlanders grew haggard before their time, a result of using tea. Since Hatter had always avoided the stuff, he appeared younger than his thirty years.

But with Charlie breathing down his back, he didn't have a choice. He considered wearing the purple coat, but instead hid it away. An irrational fear that something would happen to it shuddered to life in the back of his brain, and even though he knew it was paranoia, he had to protect his last link to the woman he loved.

Instead he donned a black coat, and rounded up an old black derby to replace the beaten straw porkpie. A glance in a mirror told him he looked young, fragile and grieving.

That about summed it up, actually.

The sun seemed too bright to him as he followed Charlie through the city. With the collapse of the Casino, the Royal Court had taken over the White Rabbit building. Hatter glanced sideways at the milling Suits. Everywhere, people paused to look at him, whispering, gesturing.

"What the hell is their problem?" He muttered, but Charlie overheard them.

"Ah, you were not aware, the King has dubbed you a Hero of Wonderland. You are famous now, you know."

"Bloody hell," Hatter groused. Charlie only chuckled.

The knight led the way to a large room, dominated by a conference table surrounded by Suits, the King of Hearts at the head. Hatter made a point of checking out the view from the windows as Charlie made a sweeping bow to the King. He'd be damned if he'd bow to the red-suited prig.

"Thank you, Sir Charles. That will be all, everyone," King Jack announced genially, and Suits gathered their notes and folders and departed. Even Charlie abandoned Hatter, but not without a wink and a bracing slap on the back.

Alone with the King, Hatter kept his eyes on the windows. Silenced stretched between them for some time, until finally Jack broke it.

"Don't you even want to know why I summoned you?"

Hatter sneered. "Not particularly. You can gloat just as well without me here as with."

Jack frowned. "Gloat? Why would I gloat?" He stood and crossed the room to stand by Hatter's side, gazing out the windows. "On the contrary, I and all of Wonderland owe you a debt of thanks for all you did to assist Alice while she was here."

Hatter shrugged, a one-shoulder gesture that lacked energy.

Jack sighed. "Why do you dislike me so, Hatter?"

Startled, Hatter actually looked up at the man. "Three guesses. First two don't count."

Jack smiled faintly. "Because I was there at the beginning?"

Hatter turned away. "Begin at the beginning, go to the end…" He started to walk towards the door; he couldn't be bothered matching witticisms with the King.

"Then stop," Jack finished the old Wonderland aphorism. "Here's another one for you: If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but…."

Freezing in place, Hatter pondered the rest of that saying. As it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.

Jack continued to speak behind him. "You see, she wasn't able to forgive me for that failing that afflicts so many Wonderlanders: lack of feeling. I'd offered her the ring in her world. To her, that was a sign of more than average affection. It startled her – we had not been spending time together for very long. She quite threw me out of her home over it. But I'd left the ring, to protect it, not expecting she'd come charging after me to return it. And when I could no longer convince her of the strength of my affection to her… well, she deemed me to be unworthy of her."

It is always more chivalrous to let the lady decide for herself what she deserves, Charlie had said. Hatter remembered how Alice had thrown herself into his arms on the Casino floor, tears of emotion in her eyes when she admitted fearing he was dead. The dizzying rush he got when she was near, the strange unfathomable anticipation she exuded during their last goodbye. "Charlie said…" Hatter started, but Jack's chuckle stopped him.

"Sir Charles is a noble and loyal person, whom, I've discovered, cannot keep a secret to save his life." Jack ambled casually back to the conference table, pretending to examine some documents. "You know, the technicians can set the Looking Glass to almost any moment they wish. Why, even a month later, they can send a person through to appear in the otherworld at the exact moment necessary," Jack said with an air of nonchalance. But Hatter kept up with the sudden subject change.

Turning back to face his king, Hatter asked simply, "Why?"

Jack's smirk was wistful. "Just because I wasn't her choice, doesn't mean I don't still want her to be happy. And if you are her choice, well, I'm not cruel like my mother. You both deserve the chance."

Bloody hell, Hatter thought. He could learn to like the King after all.

"Now," the King said briskly, "I can't just shove you through the Looking Glass with a fare-thee-well. The otherworld is a very different place. The landscape, the customs, the technology, it's all very different from Wonderland. I'll have you well-briefed by some White Rabbit agents with experience visiting the otherworld. In addition, we'll need Caterpillar to arrange an identity for you, as he did for me. Frankly, you're what they'd consider a bit… scruffy… over there. You'll need sprucing up."

"Scruffy?" Hatter yelped in outrage. "Now see here–"

"I'm not saying you have to turn into a Suit, Hatter. Just that you'll have to blend."

"Blend," Hatter muttered as the King went to an intercom and requested someone to join them. "I'll show him blended."

TBC