"Alice," Cheshire continues, "you are now queen of Wonderland. It is possible for you to slip into this dimension physically, now." Cheshire pulls off the velvet pouch that has been around his neck and opens it up. Inside is the cookies, labeled: Eat Me.

Alice's eyes fill with tears. "You mean, I wouldn't ever have to return to that stinking hole? That cesspool? Rutledge would be behind me forever?"

Cheshire nods. "These cookies. The ones that the Mad Hatter was hiding, can bring you here."

Alice shakes her head. "But I don't understand…How???"

"My sweet, I don't expect you to understand right now. Sometimes I don't really understand it myself." Cheshire ponders for a moment, thinking on how to explain it. "It's not that the cookies are really magical, per say…It's just that…." Cheshire takes a deep breath and begins again, "In Greek mythology, the goddess Persephone was kidnapped into the Underworld by Hades. She wanted to return to her mother, but was not allowed to do so because, whilst in the Underworld, she ate Pomegranate seeds, or food of the Dead. In a way, those cookies are Wonderland's food of the dead. But you must eat them willingly and knowingly as a Queen."

"There's nothing left for me back home, Cat. There's no one left for me here…except you." Alice looks at the mirror in Cheshire's hand and the cookie is his other, mulling over each. "I want to stay here, Cat."

"Then you need a link, Alice. You were your mother's link; she was her mother's link; she was her mother's link before that…Who do you know that can take your place?"

"Elaina," Alice says with tenderness. "I could pay her back for all the kindness that she has showed me during my years of hell." She falls silent, feeling a little pained at the idea of saying yet one more departure. "Why must I always say goodbye to the people I love, Cheshire?"

"Come on, dear. Let us away to Rutledge…for the last time."

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Alice hovers over the sleeping woman. The woman is napping humbly on a chair near her bed. Her head rests on her bosom and moves slowly as she breathes deeply. Her peppery hair is trundled on top of her head in a droopy bun. Alice studies the woman's face. Elaina's face is strewn with mild wrinkles, the telltale scars of overabundant smiles.

Alice touches her face and is sent a flash of the things that she is dreaming of: her son, Dominic, her job, her endless surplus of love and devotion to her patients. Alice's lips brush the woman's soft cheek. Alice takes the cleaver that killed her father and cuts a sluice across her wrist. She daubs a bit of her blood on the woman's lips, and gives Elaina one more farewell kiss. Alice looks up at the ceiling to the mirror. She looks to it for encouragement. She sees a smile hovering there, and lays back down.

She remembers her pain, her carnage, her wrongdoing, her father, her mother, her attempted suicide. Her head falls back on the pillow, her mahogany curls splaying out around her in an ocean. For the first time in her life, Alice doesn't feel lost any more.

I'm going back to Wonderland, she thinks, and this time for good. She closes her eyes and smiles now.

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Alice looks around her. The world is green and lush, overflowing with something much more than happiness. The sky is porcelain blue and is scattered with fleecy, grazing clouds. They are at the edge of the forest, which seems to be overflowing with flora of all kinds. Alice remembers this as the place where she had once found a rabbit's head, pierced by a barbed spear. At the spot, dainty, white flowers dapple the ground with the delicacy of ornate lace. That pain seems so near and threatening, and yet so far away. She shoves the thoughts out of her mind. That time is over now, she thinks. Things are going to start afresh. Cheshire looks at Alice from underneath a low hanging willow, with a blissfulness that is so strong it brings him a wince of pain.

"Cheshire!" she exclaims as she notices him. He looks as though he has been sitting there, just waiting for her return. The branches of the twisting willow seem to rain down on him in brilliant, lush torrents, creating a flourishing canopy of leafy foliage. Cheshire walks over to her delicately, his tail twitching and a rumbling purr is radiated from his throat the whole time. He massages his arched back along Alice's side, his eyes closed in his feline euphoria. He nuzzles his nose on her arm, rubbing his cheeks on her hand.

"Hello, precious," Cheshire purrs, his words drizzling like honey.

"It's over, Cat," Alice says with a hint of smile. She sighs, and it comes out as something between relief and contentment.

"It's only just begun, my love," he winks.

"Oh, Cat," she mumbles, "I wish you were not a cat…"

As she says this, the smile on Cheshire's face begins to dull. The Cat's face flinches in pain, and he looks at his paws. They are elongating and growing, as the claws begin to retract. Alice watches in awe as the black fur begins to recede, and the Cat's form begins to change into something not quite feline. He lets out a mewl of disconcert that seems to morph into the bellow of a man. Cheshire looks in bewilderment at his body as he realizes that he is no longer on four legs, but two.

Alice's eyes are wide pools of green as she stares at Cheshire. He is no longer a cat, but a tall, muscularly built man. He is naked, and Alice's milk-white face blushes at this, but Cheshire is too focused on his new hands to notice. He has a mane of wavy, sandy hair that falls in front of his face, obstructing his light brown eyes. He is about 6'3" and towers over Alice. He walks over to her, and touches her face gingerly, trying to get a feel for this new body of his.

"This is your world now, and you can have it any way you wish. You wanted it so?" he asks her as he runs his fingers over his face, still in shock.

"I did want it so," she whispers, taking a hesitant step towards him.

"I love you, Alice. I think, maybe, I've always loved you." Cheshire looks down at her, toiling his fingers through the corkscrew of a curl. She touches his face and stands there for a moment, staring into his eyes.

She thinks about him and how he's the last thing that she has been left. She leans in to be near him, his scent wafting into her nostrils, filling her up with everything that he is made of. She touches his bare chest, as if to make sure it is real. Suddenly Cheshire swoops down to her, bending over her little frame and plants his lips on hers. His tongue flits across her lips, tasting her, measuring her, before slipping inside of her mouth. Their tongues touch, and Alice feels her knees go weak. Cheshire's hands hold her face and slowly begin to meander their way down to her waist. Cheshire's mouth slips down to her neck, pausing there, tickling her with his flicking tongue. Alice lets out a small giggle and nibbles on the lobe of his ear.

Alice feels a poke, and lets out a hearty laugh as Cheshire's face suddenly turns into confusion, looking down at his erect manhood. He then realizes his nakedness, and turns a brilliant shade of crimson.

"Ummm…I feel a little underdressed," Cheshire says, his eyebrows peaking in consternation.

"Come on, Cat," Alice laughs at her own habitual mistake, "…I mean, sir…let's find you some clothes…and a palace while we're at it…"