Alice tossed and turned on her bed, find that sleep wasn't coming to her. It needed to. She needed to be drawn into its intimate caress, to forget the weariness that plagued her eyes and her limbs. She also needed more Time stolen from her, a chance to lay still and forget. Tomorrow they would try once again leaving the port of South Africa, hoping to get around the continent to finally be able to reach China. Sleep was something she needed especially if the seas were going to churn again so horridly. Rocking her stomach to and fro, sending her to her knees with cramps and sickness.

She hated being this way. She was supposed to be Alice the strong, not Alice the defeated. She had struck down a fearsome Jabberwocky, and now the bustling of the seas brought her own demise. How she wished she was strong and able, but the candies that had once rendered her able were now gone. Her lifeline, her drug. She couldn't possibly ask Tarrant for more. Surely it was enough trouble that he had given the first batch to her. She would merely have to learn to grow a sea stomach that could handle the churning. Or she'd have to deal with the nausea. There was no other way around it. She would have to gather her muchness and carry one.

She now grabbed the handkerchief in frustration and took a huge sniff. It calmed her, sending her spinning mind riddled with anxiety regarding her well being and her thoughts of returning to England so many months in the future when China had been explored. Her eyes grew heavy, and they slowly called her to welcome unconsciousness. She began to focus on her breathing, in and out. in and out. Before she knew what had over come her she was falling down, down, down into the rabbit hole of sleep.

She awoke at the Tea Party again. Good. She would tire of wandering through Underland again and again, starting at the dreadful hall of mirrors and smashing her head on the plaster ceiling before falling to the checkered floor, being forced to complete the same tasks over and over. Here at the table she saved Time, and she could spend longer talking with the mad man before her. Tarrant sat at the end of the table, his head bowed and his hands crossed over his chest. Alice quietly arose and walked to the end of the table and leant over, close to his ear

"Good evening, Hatter." She whispered and he awoke suddenly.

"Why, fair Alice! You've come another night! This is quite the surprise. I was going to guess that you wouldn't return to Underland for another several years here." Tarrant's red eyebrows rose in joy, his eyes widening with wakefulness and his mouth turning into a pleasant smile.

"Well, I am glad to be back when I have arrived, nonetheless. How are you doing, dear Hatter?" She asked and sat down in the chair next to him..

"Apparently, there is a call for my arrest on my head." He answered and poured her some tea, as if the news he just gave her was commonplace and was not something she should be concerned or worry her time with. "But enough about me, please, Alice; tell me all the wonderful tales of boating."

"Oh, there aren't many to tell, except that we are far from the shores of China. We are stuck on the west side of Africa toward Europe and our supplies are running low. I wouldn't be surprised if we turned back soon enough. I don't know how much more of this stalling to get where we want will float with the other sailors." She sipped at her tea and looked at him. She did her best to try to ignore the fact that she did not feel like adventurous Alice, and would be much more content with turning back than sailing forward. It would bring me so much closer to the rabbit hole, so pondered to herself, but did her best to keep as straight as face as she could muster. She turned the topic back to what truly was the problem so she could keep up the pretense.

"But you? What of this warrant for your arrest?"

"Oh it's nothing. Some people are just riled up that I gave you a handkerchief, and in doing so I gave something to your world. It's not as if it's a cure for anything. Well besides the candies." He admitted and leaned forward. "Have you figured out why a raven is like a writing desk?"

"I'm still working on that one," she smiled coyly, though the grin only lasted a flicker of a second before it truly dawned on her that she was the cause of the Hatter's trouble. "and as for the handkerchief, it is a cure. It helps me to fall asleep at night. Otherwise I lay tossing and turning on the bunk for hours on end. I did not mean to bring you trouble, Hatter. I would give them back to you, if you so wish to have them. And the handkerchief. I don't want you in any dangerous mischief."

"Bah! An overly eager knight is not going to bring me any sort of perilous trouble. He'll truly send me into the dungeons for a good few hours, until he realizes I am more pleased that dear Alice is feeling better. I can bear a few hours of my afternoon for that. Besides, I am glad it's brought you some comfort." His red lips parted into a grin, his gat teeth lighting up his unique smile, his eyes glowing the most emerald green she had ever seen. They looked over her face, going in circles, taking in every curve and shadow of her pale skin. With the further observation his exuberance fell. "You do look dreadfully tired."

"Oh, I am." She admitted, knowing a lie would not serve her well when she had noticed the dark crescents under her murky green eyes. Sleep was so evasive on too many levels, but she only needed to focus on one of them for his sake. "This ship is bringing me nothing but endless torment, and I wish to be off it soon enough. In England or in China, I don't care at this point. China sounds wonderful, but the sea does not." She answered, tilting her face away from the table so he could not read her further. Her stomach growled as she turned her attention away from him and instead eyed a piece of chocolate cake.

"Would you like some?" Tarrant must have seen the way she lustfully looked at the dessert, and quickly cut her a piece, placing it on a plate that appeared in front of her. "It won't be as filling as you would hope but dream chocolate cake is better than real chocolate cake. The dream makes it so much the more appetizing." He explained to her as he watched her look at the food in front of her. She avoided his gaze as she put a fork into the moist cake. Bringing it to her mouth she moaned at the way the chocolate simply melted on her tongue like hot fudge.

"You're right, it simply it extraordinary." She hummed, trying to catch the chocolate crumbs that stuck to her wet lips. Chocolate was something she hadn't had in months and it was fulfilling a small craving that was growing in her.

Tarrant watched her take a few more bites before his tireless curiosity could not be stilled any longer. He sat back in his chair, crossed his arms, and settled in for conversation. "So Alice, my dear, how are you otherwise? Aside from the seasickness?"

"I am doing well. Lord Ascot has tons of books for me to read and there are so many adventures in them. They really are delightful books. And the sea has the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Like the paintings in the great halls of Marmoreal." Alice answered after finishing her fourth large bite of the scrumptious cake. She tried her best to focus on the brilliant sunsets that occurred when the sun ignited itself in the sea. The way it's last rays stroked the purple black sky, coaxing from it the most intoxicating magentas and citrus oranges, the deep crimson streaks and the last echoes of the pale blue sky.

"What wondrous things they must be if they could ever compare to those masterpieces. Why, I would certainly love to see them." He marveled at the thought, his green eyes looking away from her and into the distance. She could see him trying to imagine the grand beauty, and she wished there was a way she could bring the images to him. They were what calmed and centered her on the roughest of days, when she was homesick for her place in England, not to even mention her home in Underland.

"If this is a dream world, couldn't you? Couldn't I just think of the sunsets and they would appear, just like that?" Alice asked, the idea striking her as firmly as her nostalgia.

"Well, I suppose they would. Anything is possible and nothing is impossible in the Evaporating World." Tarrant conceded with the shrug of his threadbare coated shoulders.

Alice sat in her chair and closed her eyes, trying to still the rest of her body and focus her entire energies on the pictures she captured in her mind. She thought really hard about the way the sunset on the ocean blue waters, the white foam becoming different colors as they lapped at the boat. She tried her best to turn the sky before them into the array of dazzling maritime collages, with their reds and pinks, blues and greens, oranges and yellows. Her head was beginning to spin with the exertion.

"Why Alice," the Hatter's light lisp gasped, sending her heart reeling with happiness that her efforts must have paid off. "It certainly is a sight to see." She opened her eyes and there, indeed. was the sunset just fifteen feet away in front of the two of them, shimmering in the distance as it had in her mind. Tarrant was looking at it in amazement. Despite all her effort to conjure up the image, it was gone within minutes, and Alice was sad because her memories still didn't seem to bring the sunsets justice.

"I feel as if they are still a hundred times over more beautiful than that." Alice confessed, a small frown appearing on her face. Tarrant laughed in dismissal, reaching out to place a hand on hers.

"They cannot be any more beautiful than you are." He lisped gently, his voice a near whisper. Alice blushed a little, her cheeks were burning at the statement, and Tarrant looked down quickly, almost as if embarrassed that he had said that.

"Tarrant, I think I am going to come back to Underland. The more I come back to here the more I feel that the piece of myself that I am missing can be found here." She tried to change the subject, say something that would maybe turn his bashfulness into confidence.

"Well, trying to go down the rabbit hole doesn't hurt. You must meet this new Gavin fellow that came to my table the other day, anyhow. He is an absolute conundrum of a man. I think he has something in for Mirana too." He closed his own eyes, focusing on his memories of the interloper, hoping that if Alice's sunsets were not done justice, then the same could be said of the new rule stickler. Much to his delight, the face of Gavin appeared at the end of the table.

"He has quite the interesting complexion."

Alice observed the memory portrait carefully, her eyes working the sharp edge of the extremely pale man's long face, stopping at his piercing blue eyes before traveling down his long narrow nose to his wide mouth and short chin. Tarrant felt a twinge of fire burn in his belly as he watched Alice observe the knight. He did his best to change the subject as quickly as he could, trying to steal her attentions back to him.

"He works in the Queen's court, what do you honestly expect?" Tarrant scoffed.

"I suppose you are right," Alice admitted, and looked back at Tarrant with small furrows between her brow, her small mouth pouting at the corners..

"You're face tells me something is wrong dear." He knew she would answer him truthfully if he said something. She understood now that he was beginning to understand her from a mere glance.

"It's just, well, something that the doctor," she paused and realized she had not expanded upon him up in conversation the last time she had talked to the Hatter. Just that he was some man that completely misunderstood Alice's attentions. She thought it best that perhaps she should name the man. He was a person, despite his annoying faults. "The man I mentioned last dream I was here. And I was saying that he was a bit insistent. His name is Henry, he is quite the good looking man, but something about him drives me around the bend. I feel like it is something I should maybe be able to place my finger on. He hasn't insisted on arresting me like this gallant knight has," she smiled shyly at the Hatter. "But he still isn't someone I am sure I want to call a friend."

Tarrant's face dropped, his once bright smile falling into a false facade of one. and Alice could see the struggle he had within himself. He quickly covered the hurt with an inquisitive look on his face. "Oh?"

"Yes, but not in a good way. It's not because I'm so interested in his attention that I want to avoid it all the same." Not the way you make me mad, the way I want you to look at me like he has, Alice thought to herself. Oh, how would she ever be able to figure out how to tell him the way he looked at her made her heart race and her face flush? She felt warm and safe whenever she was near him. She noticed this the first Time she was in Underland, but there was certainly no time or purpose to think of it then, not when there was a Jabberwocky to be slain and a queen to be avenged! Time was not her friend then! Alice continued on, trying to ignore the regret that welled at the base of her throat in a hard knot she struggled to swallow past. "He asked me if I had a beau at home and I had to tell him that it was complicated. Do you think that silly things such as love should ever be complicated?"

"Alice, that whole word 'love' means nothing but complication. It's a pure transportation into the world of the insane. I can't say I would know the whole way down-"

"Are you in love with someone?" She interrupted him and she grew hot and embarrassed at her reaction. He would certainly understand how she felt now. Damn her impatience and her inability to take her own advice!

"Well," he paused and looked at her. Then he looked down "Yes. Yes I am. And, well, I suppose, much like you told your doctor friend, it's complicated."

"Can you tell me more?" She inquired, ignoring the way the knot in her throat ignited her chest, sending a burning fire that was consuming the area behind her breasts, threatening to cut off her air supply. Who was he ever in love with? Mirana? They were very good friends indeed. But why was he here in the Evaporating World and not with her.?Unless he didn't know how to tell her of his feelings? Why did she really care? It was none of her business, and she was being unfair to fall into his world and demand that he have feelings for her the way she had for him.

"I will Alice, dear, but you must come back to Underland. I am afraid there is no other way than to tell you all about this complicated thing." Tarrant's gaze flickered from the tea stained table to meet her own, his green eyes dancing with thought and desire.

"Is she above you or below you?" Alice ventured another question.

"What?" Tarrant asked, his fiery busy brows knitting in the center as his mouth twisted.

"That is what Henry asked me; is she above you or below you?"

"Nope, no more time for riddles, fair one. I will answer no more questions about this." Tarrant's eyebrows flatlined as his eyes flashed a yellow of warning, his fingers beginning to dance along the edge of the table cloth. He reached for the teacup before him, his bethimbled finger tink-ing softly against porcelain. He lifted the empty cup to his lips/

As she watched the Hatter, trying to read him as well as he seemed to read her, Alice felt a jolt in her limbs, the pulling motion that signaled it was time for goodbyes lashed at her skin, and her fear was confirmed when she saw sadness growing in the Hatter's eyes.

"Am I disappearing?" She could hear her voice weaken, and the corners of her vision began to tremble as she tried to focus on the man sitting before her in the Evaporating World.

"I'm afraid so, dear heart. But I think I shall see you soon enough, won't I?" He asked, and he put a hand on her cheek. The rough callouses of his fingers pulled at soft skin, and she did her best to fight the tears that were tickling the edges of her eyes.

"Fairfarren, Tarrant." She whispered heavily and put a fading hand on the one that cupped her cheek.

"Fairfarren, Alice." Came the faint, familiar lisp that was now fading away.

Alice woke with a start and found that the sun was now streaming through her windows. She blinked and sat up, feeling quite rested and much better. She stood up, throwing a robe around her shoulders before leaving her cabin, quite certain that she would tell the crew to turn around. It was time to be heading home to England. Alice wanted to know the answer to Tarrant's love and she wanted to know what Iracebeth was up to. So her only choice was to return to the rabbit hole and fall down once again. She shuddered at the thought of the tumble and the fear that welled in her tummy every time she took the plunge, but she knew that once she hit the bottom, she would be the closest to home she had ever been since her father died. As she rose to the deck she was quickly blocked by some sailors who grabbed her arms.

"Be careful, Miss! You almost got yehself skewered." The large sailor said to her and motioned to two gentlemen fencing with one another, headless broomsticks in their hands.

Alice watched as one clearly had the proper training, the way he agilely dance back and forth easily dodging the other's broom stick. The burly opponent lounged and thrust the broomstick forth crudely, looking as though he was trying to at least impale the lithe adversary. Alice took a closer look at the more trained competitor and realized that it was Henry. His white shirt was flowing loosely about his body as he easily feigned the attacker and leapt out of the way. What happened to the mild mannered doctor that sat with her in her room day after day driving her up the wall with his mindless drivel? The broomstick duel went on for several more minutes and Alice watched in utter boredom. She had seen (been involved in, in fact) much greater than silly broomsticks battles and man boys dancing around each other trying to prove their masculinity. Not much to Alice's surprise, Henry gained the upper hand and knocked the broomstick to one side. The opponent crumpled to the ground, Henry's broomstick to his adam's apple. Alice turned away while everyone else clapped at the doctor's victory, trying to move down the stairs a quickly as she could to return to her cabin and bide her time to talk to the captain later on after tea time, and was mortified when he made it clear that he had seen her.

"Miss Kingsleigh, why what a surprise to see you up and about."

"Mister Lewis," She answered, turning and looking at him. Sweat covered his face and a full smile crossed his lips.

"Sorry you had to see our little duel. Mr. Muller here thought he would be the manliest man on the ship. And I had to show him that just because I am a little educated doesn't mean I'm not tough. But, of course, you already know this, my smart dear, do you not?"

"I suppose," She said, looking at Mr. Muller who was being helped up by some fellow shipmates. "but I don't see the point in proving anything with broomsticks."

"Real swords could get dangerous." Henry sniffed as he was beginning to catch his breath. His long cheeks were pink with exertion, and it was apparent his over the top victory was fueling his pride as he stood with an air of swagger. "It's a good thing you are up now, because I was going to visit you later on. Lord Ascot is bringing together a celebration tonight for our sixth month anniversary on this vessel. And he wanted to lift our spirits. Just because we haven't made it to China doesn't mean we haven't accomplished anything else and the whole trip hasn't been a wasted experience." He smiled as he waited for her reaction.

"Well, that is rather, uh, lordly of him." She responded. She hated these aristocratic parties that involved nothing but more and more quadrille.

"Indeed, Miss Kingsleigh, and I shall have to lead you in the most wonderful quadrille I've ever learned." Henry replied with the nod of his head.

"I am tired of quadrille," A playful smile danced across her lips and she looked at him. "But tell me, Henry are you as good at Futterwacken as you are at quadrille? Certainly your broomsmanship means you've learned how to Futterwacken just as...vehemently."

"Wacken what?" Henry stumbled over the word, looking at her with knitted brows and a scowl across his pink mouth. "What are you talking about, dear Alice?"

"Futterwacken, it's one of the most beautiful dances I have ever seen. But I've met a slim picking of gentlemen who are able to dance it so gracefully and with life." She smiled and backed away from him as he looked at her and laughed.

"You are such a strange, strange dame, Miss Kingsleigh. A complete puzzle," He grabbed her arm and pulled her close. "Please come tonight, Alice, and dance with me. I absolutely love puzzles." He smiled and she frowned.

"I'm not sure I am much in the mood for a party. I was hoping that Lord Ascot would be around so that I could ask him a question." Alice pulled from his grip, wanting to wipe her arm that was glittering with the sweat that he had accumulated from his grip on the broom. She instead sneered at Henry as she began to turn from him.

"Ask me anything," A deep voice came from behind her and Alice spun around to see Lord Ascot striding the couple's way.

"Could we walk, sir, and talk? I don't feel quite comfortable enough here to ask." She turned her head to look at Henry, making eye contact with the man and narrowing her green eyes to clearly show what made her uneasy.

"Oh, but of course Alice!" He agrred, and held out his elbow for her to latch on to. Alice quickly walked around the doctor and entwined her arm in Lord Ascot's. They walked down the boat until they reached the bow. The commotion of the duel had ended almost as soon as it began and all the workers had returned to their posts.

"Now, what is it you have in mind, Alice?" Lord Ascot turned his head to look down at hte girl

"I want- not I need to go back, Lord Ascot. I am dreadfully sorry to disappoint you by not making it all the way to China with you." Alice looked up at the man, trying to see how disappointed he was in her desire to give up. Or worse, his delight in her failure.

"Oh Alice, worry not. And do not be ashamed in your attempt. Many sailors have set out to the Far East, and there's a reason that those who are successful are rewarded greatly, it is a tough task, and it is an undertaking that is hard for a novice sailor like you and I. I am a tradesman, and you are a lord's daughter. Do not feel too defeated in your first failed attempt." He pulled his arm from hers, and she dropped her arms to her side, happy that at least he understood her struggle. She watched as he crossed his arms over his chest, his mouth setting into a straight line as he confessed further to her. "To be honest, we need to head back. This…celebration…tonight is more of a way for me to announce that we are returning back to Europe. I have been too far from a command post for me to continue onwards for this year. We can try again next, Alice. We will make it China."

"I've no doubt you will, Lord Ascot. But I simply cannot take your offer to go with you. I feel there are more things I need to be doing in England, back home."

"Right then," He said looking at her, disappointment ringing in his eyes. He put his hand on her shoulder and kissed her cheek. "Alice, I understand. I think for now you are just homesick, so I won't be retracting my offer until you have thoroughly thought everything through and know what you are going to do."

"Thank you, sir," Alice answered with a sigh of relief.

"Are you going to come to my party tonight?" He jovially asked he, pulling at his moustache.

"Well, sir, if you are asking me, of course, I would love to." She gently accepted the offer so as not to insult the host.

"Oh good. You must show this Henry my wife has encouraged me to bring aboard that being a real gentleman is not spearing another's liver out. It's leading a lady in a wonderful dance." He said and tipped his hat to her. "Good day, Alice."

"Fairfarren," She returned the farewell, and he walked toward his cabin. Whatever did she do to get wrapped up in this giant mess?