Firsts

Author's Note: Here begins the wedding arc of the story! First, let me apologize to Catesy for giving them some angst in this chapter. I know I told you that things were going to change, but I had to do this, just once. Again, thank you so much to my loyal readers and reviewers, you guys are awesome, and a big thanks to Smiles2Go for a push in the right direction.

The Looking Glass

Hatter hadn't been back to check on the mirror since he fell through to Alice's world. He didn't have any desire to return to Wonderland. He was happy with Alice. There was one time he ever considered it. When Alice left, and he hooked up with Kara. But, even then, he didn't go looking for it.

He loved Alice. All he wanted to do was marry her.

The first time he went back to the mirror was shortly before their wedding.

/

Alice and Hatter were fighting. The closer it got, the more her mother drove her crazy. Carol called it, "gently prodding," Hatter called it, "driving them to the brink of insanity." Alice yelled at her mother, and then yelled at Hatter. They did not want a traditional wedding, and they already told Carol that they were not going to dress in the customary garb, at least. Hatter understand that Carol felt like she knew what was best for them, but it was only making Alice crazy, and mad at him.

They were walking home from her mother's place after one such night. Carol had brought up the color of napkins. Napkins! Hatter groaned, thinking of it. She refused to listen to Alice, who had told her that they wanted the color to be light blue. Carol suggested three other colors, saying they would fit so much better.

Hatter watched the frustration flash in Alice's eyes as her mother pontificated the benefits of other colors. He asked Carol if she could please just shut the fuck up, for everything was planned out for the wedding. He added in that the only reason they were having the wedding was for her.

This earned an icy glare from Carol, who promptly walked off into another room, followed by an apologetic Alice.

Now Hatter and Alice were a block away from Carol's, angrily muttering at each other. "But, your mother can be such a bitch! She doesn't even listen to you!" Hatter exclaimed.

Alice shook her head. "I hate weddings!"

"I hate them too. I just want to be married to you, lets just do it!"

"We can't do that!"

"Why not?" Hatter practically sat on the ground, and begged. "C'mon, Alice! Fuck these family obligations. Just do what makes you happy!"

Alice snarled at him. "That's so easy for you to say Hatter! Since, you don't even have a family!" The minute she saw Hatter's face, she knew she had gone too far. "No, wait, Hatter, I didn't-"

"You are my family, Alice, my life, my home, my…" Hatter's eyes welled up with tears. "I need to go."

"Go where?" Alice reached up to grab the sleeve of his jacket, as he turned around. "Wait, Hatter, go where?"

He pushed her away. "I just need to go away for a few hours."

"Hatter!"

"Alice, don't." He wiped his face with his jacket. "I want to marry you, Alice. You! Sometimes, I fear you push all of this on me, because you don't want to marry me."

Alice watched as he walked away from her. "Hatter!" she tried one more time, but he deftly ignored her.

/

Hatter drank. He didn't even know the name of the bar, just that it was near Carol's place. He flirted with the bartender, who was a cute brunette, and bought drink after drink, after drink.

He drank and joked around until closing. He stepped out, kissing the bartender on the lips, her name and number in his pocket. He had to pee, and he cursed himself for not going in the bar when he had the chance.

Hatter spied some stairs and scrambled down. It was just an old warehouse; nobody would be in there. He almost stumbled on the last step, and ran to the corner, undoing his pants along the way. His cell phone vibrated in his back pocket. It had been going off all night, starting five minutes after he left Alice in the street.

He kept one hand on his dick to aim, and used the other to check his phone. Nearly one hundred missed…everything; texts, calls, voice mails. All from Alice. He opened the last text. "Baby, where are you? Please come home!" Hatter scrolled through the rest, pretty much all of them were like that, saying how much she loved him, she was sorry, where was he? Hatter groaned, and threw the phone on the ground. "Goddamnit, Alice!" he slurred. "Well, this is what I think about it." He stood over it, and pissed. "There."

Hatter giggled when he saw what he did, and gingerly picked up the phone. "Ooopsie, probably not a good idea." He buckled his pants up. "Alice will be mad." He put the cell phone in his coat pocket.

He turned around as the piece of gold caught his eye. It was the mirror. The Looking Glass just sitting there. "Or, I could just go home," he whispered. Hatter ran over, and peered at it. There was no actual Looking Glass in there, the mirror was gone. It was just the frame.

"So, I'm stuck here, is it?" he shouted. He hit the gold frame. "I'm stuck here with a girl who doesn't love me like I love her." Hatter fell down to the ground. "Thanks a lot Jack! Fuck you, Jack! You led her to me, you fucking made me…fuck you Jack!" He took the piece of paper out of his pocket. "Now you, Stacey, I could fuck you, but, I can't love you." He chuckled wryly. "It must be a curse. I can only love Alices."

Hatter let the paper fall to the floor. "Does anybody care about me?" he whispered. He knew he was drunk, for when he stood up, he tripped on the edge of his boot, and fell onto the cement. He groaned as he felt his lip bust open. "FUCK!"

His cell phone buzzed again. "I thought I broke that," he muttered.

It was another text from Alice. "I love you with all my heart and soul. I hope you haven't left me. I love you, I love you, I love you."

Hatter closed his eyes. He gently touched his lip, and winced at the pain. He put the phone back in his pocket, and ungainly lumbered up the stairs.

/

Alice's hands quaked as she typed in her cell phone. Her nose, and eyes were red, she had tissues wadded up around her. She called the hospitals; nobody fitting his description was reported in.

She paced around the living room. She changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants of his, so she could have him near her. She even prayed, which she wasn't prone to doing. Alice heard the key turning in the lock, and she didn't even look. She just dropped her phone and ran.

"Hatter! Hatter!" she shouted. She just saw his hat, his dark hair, the jacket, and leapt into his arms. "Hatter!"

Hatter moaned, and buried his face in her neck. "Alice…" he said her name as devotional.

"I'm so sorry, Hatter," she sobbed out. "You're my family, my life. Of course you're my family. I love you, I love you."

"Alice," he whispered again.

"Are you leaving? Did you come back just to leave?" she asked.

"No!"

Alice pulled the sweatpants down, and reached her hand out to unzip his fly. "Take me then. I need you. Get inside and take me now."

He didn't hesitate. Hatter pushed back the searing throbbing on his lip as he brought his mouth to hers. "Alice…Alice…"

/

They lay on the couch, their blue blanket thrown over them. Hatter held Alice in his arms, and she was gripping him as if he was going to leave at any minute.

"Where did you go?" she finally asked.

"I went out drinking."

"I can tell, you smell like an ale house."

"Yeah. I had a lot of it." Hatter let a finger trail down her arm. "I went to the Looking Glass. Well, not on purpose."

Alice looked at him. "The Looking Glass. The mirror?" When he nodded in assent, Alice's lower lip quivered. "Did you go back? To Wonderland?"

Hatter shook his head. "The mirror is gone. I mean the actual glass is gone. They must've destroyed it."

"What if they didn't? Would you have gone?"

He hesitated to answer. Alice was looking at him so intently that he felt any wrong word would make her face crumple. "I would have come back," Hatter finally said. "I would have gone. I was so hurt, Alice, but, I would have come home to you."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I know. I know you're right about everything. The wedding doesn't matter. I just want to be married to you."

"Me too," he agreed. "I just don't recognize that side of you, Alice, when we get together with your mom."

"I know. I don't either. I don't even know my mom when she gets like that!" Alice smiled weakly at him. "You still want to marry me?"

"Always."

"Are you sad the Looking Glass is gone?"

"A little bit…yeah," Hatter sighed. "I lived there for twenty eight years. My family is buried there, well, I don't know about my brother, but it is where I'm from."

Alice snuggled in closely. "I wonder how much time has passed there. I wonder about Jack, Charlie."

"Me too."

They fell asleep on the couch; both of them unable to move.

/

Alice wrinkled her nose up at Hatter's cell phone. "Why does your phone stink?"

Hatter dropped the dishes in the sink, and turned to her with a red face. "I didn't think it was so bad."

"You didn't think what was so bad?" Alice picked up the cell phone, and sniffed it again.

"Okay, well, in all fairness, I was angry at you, and I was drunk, so when you called, I um, pissed on the phone."

"What?" Alice screamed and dropped the phone to the floor. It smashed, cracking the screen and the battery.

"Oh. Well, now I definitely have to get a new phone. You broke it."