Hello! I'm not even sure if anyone is still following this story , but if you are...wow, and thank you. That's dedication.
I tried my best but Im still not 100 percent happy with it. Okay. I just had to give it a go since there are some really lovely reviewers out there that want me to. This is for you.
My beta hasn't had a peek at this chapter so am very sorry for any mistakes, too...
~Right, I shut up now and let you read it. Enjoy. I hope. Heh :)
*~*~*
"Boo."
With the sound of a familiar Scottish accent floating through the cell, The Hatter's eyes darted to a small window up above.
"Marchy!" Alice couldn't help smiling; they'd finally get out of here!
"C'mon, I stole the keys fae that little frog."
Marchy threw them down. The Hatter grabbed the keys but just as Alice were following him out of the cell he stopped.
"Alice, I'll go find that cat with Marchy. I know where he'll be, he can help me get back in, he knows this place."
He was really implying... "And I just stay here?! To have my head chopped off! "
The Hatter stared at her intently. No one was sure what emotion he was trying to express.
"What are you staring at?" she laughed nervously, never truly at ease under his gaze. It was as if she felt all the pain he'd experienced as her own.
"Hatter?"
"Hm? I'm fine!" Oh course, he wasn't and isn't...
" No, no of course not! I'll come back for you I promise but if you don't stay she'll never let us be, I have to talk to her. You won't have your head chopped off. " He spoke without a blink of the eye. She trusted him.
"Alright.."
Forgetting the presence of Marchy for a moment, Alice leaned in....
"I saw you two kiiiising. "
The Hatter's cheeks had never turned that unusual shade of red before.
*~*~*
"BRING ME MY TARTS!" All manor of the Queens slaves frantically ran around looking for tarts, desperately wanting to keep their heads.
"I SAAID MY HATS!" She screamed from the throne, when an exhausted monkey brought her tarts.
" GET THE HATTER TO MAKE ME SOME HATS, THAT IS WHAT HE DOES, ISN'T IT ?!," bellowed the Queen, her face gathering red by the minute.
" MUST I be surrounded by imbeciles..."
*~*~*
"Chess, Chess its Alice! She's in trouble." No answer but the whistle of the trees.
" I know you never wanted to harm her in the first place so just stop being such a cowardly cat and come out he-"
"I have never been cowardly in my life."
The mysterious woods seemed to darken yet illuminate the cat all at once.
"I knew you'd appear!" The Hatter exclaimed delightfully. The Hare twitched, not looking up once from his beloved spoon.
"Well, I suppose I just can't resist heroic deeds... what is it this time, she fell down a rabbit hole? Oh no! My apologies, that one already happened."
He pretended to look bored, producing a cup out of nowhere.
The Hatter moved to speak but was distracted, by tea. "Oh may I have one?"
"Of course" Chess smiled, producing two more cups.
"I take it you would like one too, Marchy?"
As if he'd been following the whole conversation, the Hare jumped to grab a cup.
"Got any sugar?"
" Of course."
Suddenly, The Hatter had a spontaneous idea. Well, not so spontaneous.
"I'll let you wear my hat."
The grin spreading like butter across Chess's face was enough for Hatter, who wasted no time in turning back in the direction they had just came from. Back to the castle, back to the Queen but most importantly..back to Alice.
*~*~*
As you can imagine, the Queen hadn't been too happy about the Hatter escaping. So an execution ( Alice's, no less) was scheduled for the next day.
Alice knew the Hatter wouldn't let her down, wouldn't just leave her; he would be back...but still the nagging voice remained inside her mind.
"He doesn't care about you, nobody really does. They all force you to do things you don't really want to do or wear things you really don't want to wear. The only person who truly cared is dead, and never coming back!"
Her fathers kind eyes flashed in front of her, and the words It's only a dream.
Well, she didn't want that to be true any more.
But she did want her dad back, so badly. And she wanted the Hatter to be real... he is real.
At least he is in Underland.
She wanted too many things for a woman, according to her mother. But simple things like falling in love and getting married, in her own time and to who she wanted to marry, seemed so...well, so simple! It was extremely unfair to know all she had to go back to was Hamish. And his digestive problems.
"I'm sure your mother's only doing what she thinks is best for- Mm, this is delicious!"
Her eyes lifted to see a hovering blue Cheshire cat, interrupting himself mid-speech by chomping down on a 'delicious' cupcake.
"The Hare made these you know, he's quite a good cook when he's not throwing the ingredients halfway across the room."
Alice laughed in relief. The Hatter would never break his word, and she would never doubt him ever again.
*~*~*
It was the morning of the execution and the Red Queen sat in alone in her chambers. Past times the Hatter might have been ordered to sit with her. Just sit. So she might feel better...
but he wasn't here now. This thought made her almost erupt with anger again...
A knock at the door.
"Come in!"
The door opened to reveal Mctwisp.
"M-m-m-"
"Oh for goodness sakes spit it out or I'll set the dogs on you!"
But this only shook up the poor rabbit even more.
"Everything is r-r-ready, your majesty." he failed to control his nervousness.
"Good. Now go!"
A flash of white and she was alone once more.
Completely, and utterly...no wait, out on the balcony, the familiar shape of a man caught her eye. She ran out wanting to know who was intrud-
" Ah, Hatter."
Her nose turned up slightly, trying to show hatred for the only person she felt quite the opposite for.
"Oh, Iracebeth, we know each other well enough by now to use our names."
He glided by her to sit on the end of the bed.
"You escaped, how did you do that!" She screamed, changing the subject to avoid talking about....
When he didn't answer, and when this is where usually she would be at her most angriest... instead she calmed down considerably and sat next to him.
Her voice was a whisper; like it wasn't even her voice at all. "Why am I like this?"
His eyes grew large, not really knowing the answer. Or not wanting to answer it.
"Alice!" She shot up making him almost fall off the bed, "Why her? why do they all luuurve Alice when they should love me! You should love me."
"I don't, Iracebeth. Not after everything you've done... I just. can't. Sorry." The Hatter mumbled quietly, knowing those words wouldn't go down pleasantly.
However, anger wasn't brewing in the Queen, no. She felt nothing.
"Take Alice and go." Her lips pursed as she spoke, making the heart even more prominent.
As the Hatter quickly got up and to the door he paused...
"Goodby-
"And don't come back." She quickly drowned his goodbye.
The door closed shut.
A single tear escaped and trickled down her face.
"Goodbye Tarrant."
But nobody heard her.
*~*~*
Alice looked up as the cell door opened......
"Hatter!"
The Hatter walked in closely followed by the Hare, the Cat, and an assortment of characters she would have recognised, if she'd been looking.
But Alice wasn't, right at the moment; her eyes were fixated on the mad man in front of her.
"You came back for me."
"Of course I did!"
She threw her arms around him in happiness. But, as she did, there was something strange-
"Where did they all go?"
Suddenly, their surroundings started to morph and change/
"Hatter whats happening? Hatter?" His eyes told everything. He'd been expecting and dreading this moment.
"No!" Alice's realisation that this was the end of her time in Underland did not come as a happy one.
" No I don't want to go yet, I can't go yet, please make it stop."
"I can't stop it."
It made no difference what she wished, what she thought; reality had caught up on her. On them.
"But I have so much to do here still, I'm not finished I still have to I still have to stop the Queen and..."
"Alice." She painfully stopped pacing to finally look him in the eye.
"You'll...be back before you know it. There's so much you have left to do up, there, as well."
He forced a smile to his lips.
Tears streamed down her face but the fact remained that The Hatter was right...still, that didn't make it any easier, leaving the place she'd grown to love. The man she'd grown to love.
"I love you Hatter." Alice whispered, as she leaned in for one last kiss.
Yet even as everything faded to white, as did The Hatter, she knew. Somehow somewhere.. a rabbit wearing a waistcoat would come running past and the remarkable story would start again.
Underland hadn't seen the last of Alice Kingsley.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream -
Lingering in the golden gleam -
Life, what is it but a dream?
*~*~*~*
A lot of comparisons with Tims version? Yeah that could'nt be avoided, I thought the movie was great. I hope that wasn't a sad, pathetic, let- down of an ending though. I truly don't think I would have been happier with this chapter if I had worked on it any longer than I did. Well....Review?
Oh and if you've made it this far, thanks for reading my story and hope you enjoyed! ;D