AN/ Hey guys! I know it's been forever and I'm sooooo sorry. I've felt guilty about it, but I've been super busy getting promoted in my job. So that's a good excuse, right? Haha Anyways, I've got the next couple chapters lined up and I will try my best to get them out to you! ~Eisac
Chapter Ten
The car glided around the corner with ease and control. Alice attempted a peek over the edge of the cliff, past the guard rail and swallowed hard. She'd pretty much overcome her fear of heights two years ago after partaking in a chase with live rounds on the back of a flying flamingo. So, it wasn't really how high they were, which was about fifty feet, but the rocks below that looked dangerously jagged and the trees with sharp branches sticking out at odd angles.
They seemed to be taking the scenic route home, not that Alice minded. She'd had so much on her plate to worry about; there was a sense of relief to spend this peaceful moment with Hatter on the road like any other day.
When a warm hand settled on top of her own, Alice turned to Hatter who had a fixed smile on his face. She knew what he was thinking. His eyes beamed, "I'm gonna be a daddy," and Alice couldn't help but light up herself. In the midst of all this chaos, it was amazing how the smallest of blissful news could transform both their outlooks right then. It was like a breath of fresh air.
Hatter brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her fingers, "I love you, Alice."
"We love you too." She couldn't help, but include her child. Whether it be a boy or a girl didn't matter, Alice had had a week to let it sink in there would be an addition to their family and soon it would be as familiar as breathing to Hatter as well.
"Listen Alice. We have to get out of here now. As soon as we are home I'm packing us up."
"You've got to be joking," Alice said rolling her eyes.
"I'm not. We can hide somewhere for awhile until this blows over or until McCarthy can bring this guy in. This is serious, Alice."
"I know it, Hatter. I really want all this to be over too." Alice blew out a breath and decided to give in. Now that she had another life on the line and not just her own, she had a responsibility to make sure that life survived. "Okay, let's get out of here."
"No arguments?" Hatter glanced over with a hopeful and almost smug look on his face.
"No arguments. I want to find the killer, but I want to keep our child out of harm's way more." Alice could see the relief spread across Hatter's face and knew she was making the right choice. He kissed her hand once more.
When the car flung forward, Alice had to let go of Hatter to keep from hitting the dashboard. The wheels screeched as he slammed on the brakes, but the car continued pushing forward. Alice clutched the door grip as though it was her last lifeline. "Hatter! What was that?"
His hands were tight grips on the wheel as he tried to keep the car steady. "Someone is trying to send us a message," he said glancing in the rear view mirror.
Another jerk of the car sent it swerving to the passing lane with oncoming traffic. Hatter whipped it back over just as a red Toyota started blaring its horn warning them to get out of the way. There was no emergency lane for them to pull over on the other side, not that it would help much.
Alice turned her head around to get a look at what was happening. A large black vehicle with tinted windows and a shadowy figure driving charged forward ramming their bumper again. Hatter yanked on her arm, yelling, "Get down! He might start shooting at us or something!"
She ducked down low in the seat. Sweat began sliding down her neck and brow, "Message my butt! He's trying to kill us Hatter!"
"I know! Just stay down!" Hatter pulled the steering wheel right preventing them from hitting other cars going the opposite direction and then twisted it left to keep from hitting the guard rails and driving them over the cliff. "Wait! Get your cell. Try calling the police."
Her purse was sitting next to her feet in the floorboard and luckily her cell was in a side pocket, along with McCarthy's number, just in case. She dove for it while trying to remain out of sight. Alice punched the number, which was difficult with the car being jostled around, and waited for the detective to answer. Thankfully, it didn't take long. "Detective! You have to help us! A man is trying to kill us with his car!"
She listened to his gruff voice as he told her to slow down and tell him where she was. Alice took a deep breath and gave him the road name and attempted to give him the mile marker, only she wasn't quite sure. It was difficult paying attention to anything, but the fact at any minute they might be thrown off the cliff. He instructed her to remain calm and stay on the line with him until he reached them. Alice didn't object because McCarthy had become her second lifeline she had a death grip on at that point.
After McCarthy told Burks to send back up to them, he continued to reassure her it would be alright. At first it helped along with Hatter's determination to keep the car from crashing, but it didn't last long.
Hatter tried to slow the vehicle down, but that only made the impact between bumpers that much worse and when Hatter sped up again it made their own car that much harder to control.
The black vehicle behind them eased off enough Alice for a split second thought he was giving up, but then hit the gas like a Nascar driver on his last twenty laps. A scream bellowed from her throat making it sore. When she heard the metal scraping and crunching, Alice knew there was no way Hatter was going to be able to keep them on the road this time. Dropping the phone, Alice held on to the door grip with both hands. The car spun one way, the minivan from the passing lane t-boned them tossing them the other way. She screamed again. Glass shattered and rained down on their heads. Metal colliding shrieked and tires screeched on the pavement. The last thing Alice saw was the guard rail speeding towards her. And her only thought was this can't be the end.
Alice felt a throbbing pulse in her temple constantly beating at her skull like hammering a nail in it. She tried to lift her hand to feel her head, but it wouldn't move. Nothing would move, not even her eyelids as they fluttered trying. Her stomach was churning and she thought about opening the door to vomit on the ground, but once again she couldn't move her hand to get to the door handle.
When Alice heard a man's voice yelling at her, she couldn't understand what he wanted, but certainly felt the pain it radiated making her ears throb. Alice opened her eyes then. A blurry buff guy with a white collared shirt was standing outside the car, leaning over the driver seat holding his hand out to her. "Ma'am? Can you move?"
She shook her head, but stopped instantly when the nausea hit her stomach like a wrecking ball from the motion. "If you would just let go of the door there and climb over…Can you do that for me? Now, I don't want you to move if it hurts in any way."
Finally it dawned on Alice that help had arrived for them, red lights flashing everywhere and if she could force herself to get out of the car; she and Hatter could go home to her nice warm bed. And right then some aspirin and bed sounded like heaven.
"That's it," the man smiled holding on to her arm as she slowly managed to get one leg over the gear shift and then the other. "You're doing just fine," he said.
"Get the stretcher over here! She's got a pretty bad head injury! Possible concussion."
Alice winced when he really yelled this time so close to her ear or at least it sounded close. She wasn't sure anymore, but she wished he'd stop or she might puke all over his crisp white shirt. Wouldn't that be a sight?
oo
After they loaded her up on the stretcher, Hatter heard Alice's protest for the hundredth time and decided to put his foot down. "You're going to the hospital Alice! You have a nasty bump and we need to make sure everything is alright with the baby."
That got her to sit back and do what the EMT's told her to. "You're right." A look of horror swept over her and she paled. Hatter hadn't meant to frighten her to death; he just wanted her and the baby safe.
"Hey, it's okay. Everything will be fine, love. I promise." He brushed her bangs from her forehead and held her hand. From what he could tell Alice was indeed going to be just fine, but the bruises under her eyes and red smear of blood down the side of her left cheek made Hatter doubt these guys they were riding with knew what they were doing. Alice probably felt even worse than he did.
When the mini-van had hit their car, Hatter's air bag had popped out with a big puff of smoke and burns going up the insides of his arms. He couldn't see anything in front of them and hadn't known where the car was headed. But he felt the glass shattering all over them and Alice's piercing screams. God, he'd never forget those spine tingling screams from her, just before they hit the rail. Hatter prayed he'd never hear them again as long as he lived.
Nurses and EMTs rushed them into the emergency center, along with another ambulance that had passengers from the mini-van. Hatter made a mental note to ask how they were doing later and if he could help, but right now his first priority was Alice.
They'd put her in a room with celery colored curtain walls and first began stitching up her head. Then shortly another nurse rolled in a machine to do an ultrasound of the baby. Before Hatter could find anything out, a stout red headed nurse in pink scrubs with wide purple glasses, pulled him away from Alice's curtained room. "Sir, if you don't have any injuries, we ask you to please move to the waiting area at this time."
She tried to lead him away, but Hatter turned back in refusal. "No! I have to make sure she's okay."
The nurse was not about to let him do what he wanted. In fact the little round woman was stronger than she appeared. Her right arm swung around his back as she began practically dragging Hatter towards a set of double doors. "Your wife will be just fine, now let the doctors do their job. Come…do we need to take a look at those burns on your arms?"
She was still forcing him to walk down the hall, when Hatter shook his head, "I've had worse. They'll heal."
The red headed nurse did not look convinced. "I'll get Dr. Brenner to come take a look. If you could just wait in here…" She'd taken him into a tiny waiting area with maybe a dozen hunter green seats, a little television in the corner broadcasting news and generic paintings of seascapes lining the walls. The door clicked behind him and suddenly the room felt a lot smaller. If only it had a window or something.
At first he sat down to wait, but he just couldn't stop worrying about Alice. Hatter jumped up to pace the small square room. Logically, he knew she was fine, but what if he'd been wrong? What if something really had happened to their baby during the accident? What if Alice was internally bleeding and he was going to lose them both? Hatter suddenly felt faint, nauseous, dizzy and a ton of other unpleasant sensations all at once. A bitter taste formed in his mouth and the silver garbage can in the corner was abruptly in front of his face. What he'd eaten at the diner was no longer in his stomach.
Just then the door opened and a lanky man in a brown suit and white lab coat instead of a blazer walked into the room with a chart in his hands. "Are you with Miss Hamilton?" he asked.
"Yes, I am," Hatter managed to say after wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "Is she alright?"
"Don't you worry, Langley, her doctor that is going to deliver the baby, is looking at her now. And everything seems to be excellent right now. I've stitched up her head and it looks real good. I'm going to keep her overnight to make sure there are no complications with her head or your baby. We'll run a few more tests, but all in all…I think Alice is a very healthy young woman. And I don't think you've anything to worry about."
Hatter nearly fell, slumping into the nearest seat in relief. "Thank you," he whispered.
"You're welcome. Now, I know the EMTs okayed you, but I've come to check out those arms of yours." He walked over and set his chart down next to Hatter.
"Stubborn red head," he grumbled to himself, which the doctor had heard because he threw his head back to laugh.
"They always are, aren't they?" he said.
After examining him, Brenner took out a pen and began scribbling something down on a pad. "Those aren't serious burns, but it's possible for them to get infected, so I'm giving you a prescription for cream. You need to put it on in the morning when you wake up and before bed for at least two weeks. They'll heal faster if you do."
Hatter folded the paper with gibberish looking handwriting and put it in his pocket. "Thanks? When can I see Alice?"
"Not until we finish the tests. They'll move her to a recovery room in probably a couple hours. Someone will be in soon to let you know where they're going to be moving her. You can go ahead and wait for her there when they do if you like."
"Thank you doctor." Hatter rubbed his eyes and brow. He wanted to just curl up with Alice and take a long nap.
"Oh and one more thing," Brenner paused in the doorway. "It's my understanding that this wasn't an accident, and a detective is waiting to see the both of you together when Miss Hamilton has recovered enough. I told him to wait until tomorrow to speak with the both of you, but to my knowledge, he doesn't look pleased and wanted me to pass a message on to you."
Hatter waited annoyed by the dramatic pause this doctor was taking. "He wants some answers, now. No more games, he said." Brenner didn't question Hatter or say anymore. When the door shut once more behind him, Hatter let his head fall in his hands again. Great. What was he going to tell the detective about Wonderland? And worse…what was he and Alice going to say when they find out that Hatter knew who's trying to kill them?