(AN: Just a reminder – this is set after 'Alice' but before Series 3 of Primeval. Just in case y'all were like 'canon? we don't need no stinkin' canon' over my torment of Abby & Connor. I need to let them get into Series 3 with UST intact. Because yes, I'm contemplating a sequel to this.)

TWENTY-ONE

(the ballroom of Heart Castle)

"Everything all right?" Alice asked quietly.

"Yeah, just Dodo being his usual self," Hatter told her, sliding his arm around her waist, enjoying the feeling of having her close. He smiled down at his wife. His wife!

After only three months together in Alice's world, they'd moved in to a flat together, reveling in the freedom of sharing every moment of their days. Three months after that, after careful research to make sure he did it right, Hatter took her out for a romantic meal, a sapphire ring a heavy weight in his pocket.

Of course, the service was terrible, their entrées came out cold, Hatter got into an argument over it with the manager, which got them thrown out, and then they nearly got mugged on the way home. Hatter punched out the mugger and left him unconscious. By the time they were safely locked in their apartment, Alice was laughing until her make up ran, Hatter was morose over the ruination of the evening, and it had rained on them.

So it wasn't until they were cleaned up and changed into their lounging pajamas that Hatter decided to take a stab at it anyway. There in their living room, over television and cheap wine, in their pajamas, Hatter got on one knee beside the sofa, and asked Alice to marry him.

He'd never thought he'd find a woman to truly love. He never expected he'd fall in love with anyone in the first place; Wonderland being what it was, a serious relationship posed a terrible risk for the tea house owner who also supplied the Resistance. Cheerful little pretty tea-heads had been more Hatter's speed – bimbettes, just as Dodo had said. Pretty young women, all brittle with false smiles and expensive tea habits, with whom Hatter could pass the time until he tired of them, or they found a better sugar daddy.

When lust came from a bottle, and satisfaction as well, the physical fun and games were just icing on the cream cake, and even when Hatter didn't take the edge off with a drop of Tea in his tea, he still went in for the quick and easy, no strings attached.

Then Alice had appeared, and turned his world and his heart upside down. Sometimes, he almost cried at the warm comfort of their days – the sheer relief of simple day to day existence, when the most exciting things happened in their bedroom, not running for their lives in the streets. He often caught himself just watching Alice as she puttered about, or surfed the internet, just looking at this marvelous woman who'd trusted him with her life and her heart, and thinking about how bloody lucky he'd been to find her.

They'd been married quietly in a city office, only Carol and a couple of Alice's closest relations in attendance. The reception had been a dinner party in a nice restaurant, and their honeymoon… well, they'd told everyone they'd spent the week at home together, but in actuality, they'd returned to Wonderland for a leisurely vacation tour, allowing Grace to pamper them, visiting with Charlie, and rebuilding a friendship with Jack.

Hatter gave his wife a squeeze, pressing his nose to her hair and breathing deeply of her scent and her warmth.

"Hatter?" she asked, looking at him quizzically.

"I love you," he simply told her. Her smile brightened his world.

"I love you too," she answered, resting her head against his shoulder.

A crescendo of strings filled the air, an opening flourish to a popular waltz. Wonderlanders went in for all sorts of music. Jack had been careful, on Alice's advise, to limit certain styles – particularly violent rap and particularly bleak suicidal goth rock had both been taken off the import list – but for the most part, all sorts of imported music had become popular very rapidly, once inexpensive players had been produced and made available to the populace for minimal cost. There were days when the City rang with various songs all competing on the air as neighbors got into lighthearted volume wars.

Danceable music in particular thrilled the inhabitants of this world, and dance halls were cropping up in place of tea houses all over Wonderland. Of course, Wonderlanders did everything their own slightly off-kilter way. Alice had laughed herself silly when told that "slam-polka" had become very popular among the young and fashionably disaffected. A waltz at a ball was a swirling mass of couples swooping in every direction.

So of course, Hatter had to drag Alice out to dance.

When noticed, people made way for them. They were the Heroes of Wonderland after all – the Lady Alice of Legend and her Mad Hatter. Everyone knew the story, how Alice had followed Jack through the Looking Glass to save him, how Hatter had been a Resistance supporter and spy, how the White Knight used black arts to raise the Red King's dead army.

Of course, the stories were ridiculously embellished at points. Hatter didn't mind the ones that played up their romance – or his good looks, actually – but really, nobody could take on a pack of Jabberwocky single handed, seriously.

Soon King Jack and Duchess Grace joined the dance, and people made way on the floor just to watch the two famous couples. As the song wound down, Hatter spotted Connor and Abby watching them, and he pointed them out to Alice with a jerk of his chin.

As the music stopped, and a new song started, Alice laughed and turned to their friends.

"Connor! Dance with me!" Alice ordered, reaching for him.

The Englishman's expression turned frightened. "But… I don't know how to dance to this…"

"It's a tango," Abby said.

"And that doesn't help at all, Abbs," Connor shot back.

"You just make it up, like everyone else does!" Hatter laughed, taking Abby's hand and spinning her onto the floor. "C'mon, Abby, we'll show them how it's done."

Alice pulled Connor onto the floor, and as usual in Wonderland, everyone just made it up as they went along. Soon Connor was laughing helplessly as he apologized every few seconds for stepping on Alice's toes… or when Alice stepped on him. Hatter was pleased to see his little brother having fun, and he enjoyed dancing with Abby as well. She was obviously a hell of a dancer – she managed to follow every twist and turn he threw at her. If only either of them actually knew how to tango, Hatter was sure they'd be killer on the dance floor.

"You're brilliant!" He told her at one point, and when she laughed, he felt very good. Yeah, his little brother had set his sights on a hell of a package here. Had Hatter not had his Alice, he might have been tempted to see if he could've stolen Abby away from Connor. But that wasn't really his style, in truth, and he did have his Alice, and he didn't want it any other way.

As the music ended, he heard Connor saying "– can't dance for shite."

"I think you did fine," Alice told him, patting his shoulder.

"If Alice's feet are black and blue tonight, I apologize," Connor said to Hatter, who laughed.

"Drinks!" he announced, leading the quartet off the floor, reclaiming his wife's hand.

TWENTY-TWO

(the ballroom of Heart Castle)

Long after midnight, closer to dawn in fact, the crowd in the ballroom started to thin out. People bowed to their King and his future Queen, bidding their heroes goodnight, with smiles for their guests. Over the course of the evening, several rumors had circulated about Hatter and Connor – everything from secret twin brothers to a strange Looking Glass accident creating a double. Neither man bothered to correct anyone.

A sweet melody filled the air, and Jack immediately led Grace onto the nearly empty dance-floor. With an unusually soft expression, Hatter followed suit with Alice. Connor and Abby watched.

Abby told Connor, "Jack and Grace are noon, Hatter and Alice are midnight. Do you see it?"

He nodded, a wry smile for her uncharacteristic romanticism. "What does that make us?" he asked, a surprising echo of her thought earlier in the evening.

"What do you think?"

He considered a minute, then grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the floor. They hadn't danced with each other all night, and even now, it made Abby's heart beat a little harder to feel his one hand on the small of her back, and the other holding her hand in a gentle grip. "Twilight," he told her. "I mean, after sunset, you know, not that weird teen girl book." Abby just laughed. "Moonrise," he went on as he moved her around the floor, "when the moon looks close enough to touch."

"Connor…" Abby breathed, but he shook his head.

"It's okay, Abbs. Just dance with me." His smile was wry and gentle.

So she did. She found it difficult to hold his gaze for long, but she went along with the dance, letting him lead. For once.

TWENTY-THREE

(the guest wing)

Later in his room, Connor lay back on his bed and mentally replayed every moment with Abby at the ball, from the way she'd laughed to the way she'd pressed against him during the confrontation with Dodo, to the rosy blush on her cheeks as they'd danced. No matter what happened when they got back to London, he'd hang on to those memories forever.

Abby curled into a comfortable ball on her bed. She was sure she'd sleep until noon. The ball had been fun – she'd enjoyed all the primping and dressing up, since she rarely did so in the real world. She'd also privately really liked the way Connor looked at her all night. Not that he didn't always look at her with admiration, but tonight had been extra special. And even though she'd ducked the moment when she though he would try to kiss her… well, maybe she should give him a chance.

Alice lingered over her husband's lips, both of them breathless and sweaty. She certainly never wanted for attention with a man as energetic and intense as Hatter. He grinned up at her, his eyes half-hooded with satisfaction and pleasure. Before she'd met him, Alice never really believed in love. The disappearance of her father and the years of grieving she'd watched her mother suffer only served to convince the young Alice that love was a dangerous, foolish, weakness. So she'd unconsciously sabotaged every relationship she'd ever had. Until she met Hatter, who'd blithely refused to let her ruin them. He'd simply moved into her heart without warning, making himself at home. And Alice now couldn't fathom her life without him.

Hatter grinned up at his gorgeous sexy wife. He could see the play of thoughts on her face, the ones he knew always ran through her head. A heady mix of disbelief, surprise, amusement, love, passion, and joy. Pretty much the exact same way he felt about her: disbelief and surprise that she'd chosen him, amusement at the many ways they were so different, intense love for her, passion for her that made it hard sometimes to even let her get out of the flat, and joy that they were together, and would be for the rest of their lives. All in all, a damned good way to spend a life, he thought, pulling her down against his chest to snuggle her.

to be continued