Chapter XII
Wonderland
Leah was asleep in bed and awakened by a loud procession of knocks on her bedroom door. She jumped, filled with an instant wash of adrenaline, but slumped back into the plush mattress once again. Her face sank into her fluffy pillow.
There was another bout of knocks.
"Whaaaa?!" She called out as loudly as she could. The sound was heavily muffled by said fluffy pillow, but she had no intentions of correcting it.
She heard the door open then close once more. There was a brisk ruffle of fabric that drew near until she could sense someone standing beside her bed.
"Forgive the interruption, Mum," the familiar voice of Ten said.
Leah opened the eye that hadn't been obstructed by fabric and looked up at the man in the black suit standing a couple of feet from her.
"What?" she asked again.
"The King is asking for you," he said.
Some time ago, Ten and the rest of the Suits had learned that Leah preferred bluntness. It took some prompting because they'd been so used to dancing on egg shells when they spoke to the Queen, but it was a habit she wanted them to break. Hemming and hawing versus simply stating the issue had always annoyed her.
"What about?" she grumbled.
"Today's festivities, I believe," Ten replied. "He is waiting for you in the throne room." She didn't move and could see the agitation flash briefly across Ten's face as a result. "He was insistent, Mum."
"What time is it?"
"Nearly ten-thirty."
Leah took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. She nodded.
"I'll be right with him," she said.
Ten gave a short bow. "Yes, your Majesty."
And with that, he disappeared through the door once more.
Leah rolled onto her back and yawned. She stretched, heard her ankle pop repeatedly when she did, and relaxed into the bed once more when she'd finished. Leah stared at the canopy above her. Despite the so-called festivities schedule for the day, Leah remained certain that the day would be no different than the rest –plain and uninteresting.
Nothing ever changed.
~!~
Other World
Alice sat in front of the mirror in Randy's apartment. She leaned against the couch while she sat on the floor just… staring.
She didn't know what she expected. Sometimes she thought Leah might step through, maybe even Randy. Sometimes, she wished Jack would magically appear.
It'd been two months since she left Wonderland and Alice still dreamt about it regularly. It was also the longest she went without speaking to Miranda. It felt wrong, especially since she knew exactly where Leah was. Alice felt like she should have been able to talk to her, but… how?
Alice held the small piece of tanzanite, the pendant on the necklace Leah had given her, running it lazily along the chain. Her mind drifted while she stared at her reflection. She wanted to know what happened to the Queen. What happened to Wonderland? How was Charlie? How was Jack?
Alice took in a deep breath and sighed. Jack. Why did she miss Jack so much?
They dated for two months. In fact, they'd dated about as long as it'd been since Alice had last seen him, but she missed him so much.
She hadn't been given a chance to say goodbye, either. It'd been abrupt and far too quick. Sometimes she hated the guy who'd shoved her through the Looking Glass.
"When I offered you this ring once before, you didn't know what it meant. Now, I'd like to offer it to you again. Be my Queen, Alice."
She said no because, at the moment, she'd meant it. She was a different person. She'd been through so much in her short stay in Wonderland that saying no to his proposal had been the only logical answer.
And yet, slowly but surely, as the days and weeks ticked by, Alice began to wonder why she'd said it. She was emotionally raw then, tired and drawn. Now? Now, she'd been given time to settle, to recuperate, and if he asked her again, her answer might change.
The door to the bathroom opened. Alice peered back and spotted Hatter emerging from within. His long hair was wet, hanging in tendrils around his face. His facial hair was a little longer than it used to be, so was his hair, and he seemed more comfortable in his surroundings.
He stepped out wearing a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt, appearing every bit a comfortable couch potato when he looked up and noticed her staring at him. He smiled, flashing his childish dimples. Alice smiled back, but noticed his grin falter a bit when he noticed her staring at the mirror.
He walked over and took a seat beside her on the floor. He leaned against the couch, too. They went back to staring at their reflections.
"Do you miss it?" Alice finally asked after a bit of silence.
He didn't immediately answer and she knew why. "Sometimes," he said.
She knew it was a lie. Somehow, Alice knew that he missed Wonderland much more than he said. It would make sense. Wonderland was his home. Anyone would miss home, even more so when there was no possible way to return. She pitied him for that.
Hatter rolled his head in her direction. She met his gaze and he smiled. "But I'm happy here."
She smiled and when he leaned forward to kiss her, she returned the sentiment. When he drew back, Hatter tenderly swept the back of his fingers down her cheek.
"What do you want for dinner?" he asked as he got comfortable against the couch again.
"I don't know," she said with a little sigh. "Pizza? We still have those coupons."
"Sure." He nodded.
Hatter rose, probably to get the coupons off the fridge, but never made it to the kitchen. Hatter had made it only a step or two before he paused. Through the reflection, Alice could see a strange expression twist his face. She creased her brows. He approached the mirror, staring at it like something was wrong, but she couldn't see what.
The situation only became stranger when he reached out. Reaching forward, Hatter touched the mirror. It rippled. The glass rippled. His brows rose high and his head snapped back to look at her. Alice scrambled to his side.
Their focus went back to the mirror. Alice reached out. She touched the glass. As it had with Hatter, the once-solid glass wobbled. A wave of bravery shot through her. Calling on every ounce of it, she thrust her hand forward. It disappeared into the mirror.
"Oh my God." She beamed.
The door to Wonderland was open.
~!~
Hatter tumbled through the Looking Glass and fell hard onto an unforgiving surface. He groaned. Before he could get to his feet, something slammed into his back. Considering the sounds it made, it was Alice.
"Oh, Hatter," she muttered in an apologetic way. "I'm so sorry."
She crawled off his back and looped her hands under his arm, doing her best to heave him to his feet.
"It's fine," he grumbled. She'd knocked the air out of him.
As he righted himself and did his best to gather his bearings, he and Alice were suddenly set upon by a handful of Suits with weapons drawn. His hands shot up. Alice did the same.
"Freeze!" one of them shouted.
"How the hell did they get through the Looking Glass?" someone somewhere else asked.
"I don't know," another replied.
"Who are you?!" the one who'd initially spoke demanded.
"Uh… I'm Alice," Alice said. "And this is Hatter."
The Suits shifted. Some began to relax and stand upright again. Their aim began to waver, their guns dipping and some lowered them. They glanced at once another uncertainly. A cold lump formed in Hatter's gut.
Finally, the guy in the lead lowered his gun and the Suits who hadn't previously followed his lead. He stowed it within his jacket.
"You." He pointed at someone. "Go get Ten."
The Suit nodded then raced off. He didn't walk, he ran, leaving Alice and Hatter alone with roughly half a dozen others. It was uncomfortable to say the least.
About ten minutes passed before the Suit returned following a tall, slender man in a black on black suit. His dark hair was combed and styled perfectly, his facial hair a short goatee, and a pair of symbols on his lapel. It was a faint number ten fashioned out of a glossy fabric sat on a dull, matte-colored club suit.
Hatter recognized him and knew Alice did, too.
"Alice." He greeted warmly before his dark eyes darted to Hatter. "Hatter, welcome."
"Thanks?" Alice said unsurely.
He gave a kind smile. "If you'd follow me, I will take you to his majesty."
Hatter and Alice shared a sideways glance before, for some reason, they did as he asked. The pair of them fell into step behind the Suit.
While the room with the Looking Glass had been ornate, it was different than the room it'd been in when they left, a fact that was even more evident when they stepped through the door. They were in a house, or a mansion. Hell, it might have been a castle for all Hatter could see, but it hadn't been the same building as before.
The hall was as wide as Hatter's entire apartment. The walls rose high into the air where they led to a vaulted ceiling. They were surrounded in the warm colors of carved, ancient-looking wood. The decorations were sparse, but there were a few massive portraits on the wall to the left, and a few random pieces of statuary or candelabras, while the right "walls" were enormous widows with thick curtains.
They had walked for five minutes, perhaps a bit more, down long hall after long hall before Alice chose to speak.
"Where are we?" she asked very plainly.
"In the palace," Ten replied.
He shared another odd glance with Alice.
"The palace," Hatter repeatedly bluntly.
"Yes," Ten said. "The King thought it was the best place to keep the Looking Glass, given what it can do. And, truthfully, there have been many who thought you would return."
Hatter could see the way Alice looked at him and it made him reach for her hand. She was uncertain, not frightened, but unsure of how to proceed. He understood, which was why he held her hand. He didn't know how to proceed, either.
"It's quite a coincidence that you should return today," Ten said.
"Why do you say that?" Alice asked.
He glanced over his shoulder while he continued to lead the way. Ten smiled as he said, "It's the anniversary of the Queen of Hearts' fall."
A shard of ice struck Hatter's heart. It was an overwhelming feeling, almost strong enough to make him stop in his place. Somehow, maybe prompted on by Alice, he managed to keep walking. He looked down at her and noticed that she was just as surprised.
"It's been a whole year?" she whispered to him.
"I guess," was all Hatter could manage to say.
He knew time moved differently in Wonderland, but the fact that he'd been gone an entire year was almost too much for him to stand.
They followed Ten in a deafening silence for the rest of the trip. Finally, the Suit brought them to a pair of open French doors and through. Alice and Hatter were presented with a party that they somehow hadn't noticed beforehand. Maybe it was just because of the unbelievable bomb that had been dropped on them moments prior.
The doors led to a space thirty or so feet wide. It was a balcony that overlooked a garden where the majority of the party was being held. A grand staircase swept toward the garden on their left and another on their right.
The party was held in a space roughly half the size of a football field. There were strings of lights that had been suspended above their heads, through nearby trees, and along the short hedges that bordered the entire area.
In the center was a makeshift dance floor, a band off to their left playing soft music. There were a dozen or more round tables off to the right, waiters making the rounds, and probably fifty to a hundred people milling about.
Hatter felt very out of place.
"Please." Ten drew their attention back to him. He continued to smile kindly to them. "Feel free to enjoy yourselves. The King and Queen will be with you shortly."
And with that, he disappeared once more. Hatter looked at Alice, searching her face for a reaction to the phrase king and queen. He saw disappointment. Whether intentional or not, he saw it. She wiped it away the moment she met his gaze.
"What should we do?" she asked.
Hatter let out the long, unintelligible sound that meant I don't know because he had no idea how to proceed. The entire ordeal felt strange. Hatter still expected the Suits to turn on them, rush out of the shadows and arrest them again. He expected to be thrown to the Tweedles or for Mad March to jump him when he wasn't looking. As a result, he tightened his grip on Alice's hand.
Eventually, they decided to join the party. The only other option was to stand at the top of the stairs like a pair of statues. Returning to the Looking Glass hadn't donned on Hatter. Now that he was home, back in Wonderland, he had no intentions of returning to Other World just yet.
When they made it to the garden, Hatter snatched a pair of champagne flutes from a passing waiter and offered one to Alice. She took it, toasted him, and took a sip. He did the same.
They were surrounded by people wearing fancy gowns and perfect tuxes. Their outfits weren't as ridiculous as they'd been under the Queen's reign, but there were still bits and bobs reminiscent of that time everywhere.
They wandered around for little while, growing as comfortable with the situation as Hatter assumed they could, when a booming voice broke through the haze.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" A man declared into a microphone. Hatter and Alice looked at the stage where the band sat. The music had faded, allowing the large man with a robust voice to speak clearly. Through fancifully twirled facial hair, he said, "It is my great honor to introduce to you this evening, the King of Hearts, and the White Queen!"
He swept his arm toward the staircases and there, standing within the glow of a spotlight on the same spot where Hatter and Alice had stood only moments prior, was Jack and…
"Leah," he muttered the name.
And sure enough, standing beside Jack was Leah.
The pair overlooked the people who applauded their arrival. Jack looked as he always did with his perfectly combed hair, his perfectly squared jaw, and his perfectly tailored blood-red suit. He was perfectly handsome, and Hatter still perfectly hated him for it.
Leah, on the other hand, had been decadently dressed. He'd never seen her in anything so fancy and it caused his brain to reboot.
Her silver hair, with threads of white and grey mixed within, was up in a soft, rolling style. A few sparse tendrils were the only things allowed to touch her slender neck. He saw Jack offer his arm, which Leah took, and the pair descended the stairs together. The closer they drew, the more Hatter could see until they were on the ground level.
The dress she wore was off-the-shoulder with sleeves made of lace that reached her elbows. The neckline was low, which made her look oddly naked despite the yards of glittering fabric. The gown was white beneath a layer of something that shined. Hatter had no idea if it was lace or beading, but it was hypnotic and beautiful in the way it caught the light.
He could see her curves as the fabric held close to them until roughly mid-thigh where it splayed out until it reached the ground. It trailed behind her as she walked alongside the king. Hatter and Alice might have been towards the back of the crowd that had cleared the dance floor for them, but he could still see small details, like the tiara resting in her hair, her pointed ears on show, and how blank both she and Jack looked.
The King of Hearts and the White Queen.
Those words echoed in his mind. Leah and Jack had been married in the year he and Alice were in Other World.
Why did that make him angry?
The band began to play a low, soft song as Jack –still holding Leah's hand- guided her out in a wide circle before drawing her to his chest. They stood together, completely still, until the tempo picked up. When it had, they began to sway across the dance floor.
Back and forth and back and forth they moved while the music began to build to something. When it finally reached that peak and the tempo increased, so did Jack and Leah's dance. They began to glide across the dance floor in step with the tune, moving so effortlessly that Hatter would have no trouble believing they hadn't touched the ground.
And then, just as suddenly as it began, they ended their waltz on a bang. They had been dancing for minutes or longer, and yet the end seemed abrupt enough that Hatter flinched. He'd been so entranced that it took the audiences' applause to snap him out of it. He clapped and so did Alice.
As they lingered in the background, unsure of what they were meant to do, or how they could reach the pair, Hatter noticed Leah's odd behavior. She was standing in profile to him, speaking with Jack. Jack held her shoulder while she touched her forehead. He could see Jack asking what's wrong, and Leah reply that she didn't know.
And then, without warning, she went rigid. Her head snapped in their direction so quickly that it made him jump again, but he wasn't the one she saw. Despite the distance, he saw her lips say Alice. Jack's head snapped in their direction, too. Hatter watched as Leah gathered her gown and raced toward them. It only took seconds before she was there, wrapped around Alice in a bone-crushing hug.
"Alice," she sighed. An unfamiliar sensation trickled down his spine at the sound of her voice. "I've missed you."
Alice held her just as tightly. "I've missed you, too."
"Hatter."
Jack's voice pulled his attention from the two. The king offered his hand and, for some reason, Hatter took it. Jack gave him a sharp nod while he shook his hand firmly. With their greeting done, their attention shifted back to the two young women.
Leah and Alice managed to part. Tears of joy clung to Leah's lashes. Even Alice fared no better, and each of them smiled to what had to be a painful degree.
"Oh my god, look at you," Alice said with a breathy laugh. "I haven't seen you in a dress since prom." They laughed again. Alice's gaze drifted toward Jack. It seemed to be the first time she noticed him since he walked up. "Jack."
Hatter didn't know if she was aware of the level of happiness in her voice when she said his name, but it was immense, and Hatter noticed. The slight irritation he felt at it faded quickly, however, the moment Leah's neon-green eyes landed on him.
Jack and Leah traded places fluidly, without the same awkwardness that most people had when trying to step around someone else. It remained further proof that they had been together for a long time.
She stood before Hatter, staring at him with an emotion he couldn't identify.
"Hatter," she said on a breath.
He smiled at her, almost desperate to hug her. She stepped forward to do just that until something stopped her. The smile faded when she glanced to her arms. Leah ran her hands up and down their length. So much bare skin. She shrank away from him and a very real wave of anger swelled through him.
Why didn't he get a hug? Why couldn't he be welcomed back? Why wouldn't she-
His tirade of angry thoughts faded when the warmth of her body pressed against his. Leah had lunged forward and encircled him in her arms. When the realization hit him, Hatter relaxed into it. He held her, his hands running up the length of her beaded back. His eyes drifted shut on reflex. The sweet floral scent of her skin, the warmth of her against him -all of it was enough for him to forget about the world around him.
"I've missed you." He breathed into her shoulder.
Her fingers bit into his jacket and her arms tensed around him. With a quivering voice, she replied, "I've missed you, too."
He hugged her even harder, which he hadn't thought possible. Hatter's eyes prickled and he knew he was about to cry.
Somehow, after untold minutes, Hatter and Leah withdrew from one another. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alice and Jack do the same. The two royals stepped back and stood side by side while Alice and Hatter stood together. It was surreal. He didn't think he'd ever make it home again, let alone see Leah.
"So," Alice's voice was thick with joyful tears and a laugh. She wiped her cheeks as she spoke. "You're officially the king now, hmm?"
Jack smiled. He slid his hands into his pockets and nodded. "Yes, I am. For some time."
"And you're the queen now. Congratulations," Alice said to Leah. "How long have you two been married?"
Jack and Leah glanced at one another with blank faces. When they looked back at her, Hatter could see a teasing grin twist Leah's full lips.
"We're not married," she said. Hatter had to consciously suppress a relieved breath. "I rule over the White Kingdom."
"But, that's just a bunch of ruins," Hatter said. He couldn't understand why Leah would want to be the Queen of Rubble.
"We've been rebuilding it since my mother fell," Jack said.
"It's nearly done, in fact," Leah added.
"Nearly done?" Alice repeated in shock. "It's only been a year, hasn't it?"
Jack and Leah's faces fell once more, but instead of confusion, they stared back at her sympathetically. It was the sort of look an adult might give a child when they learned Santa Claus wasn't real, that pitiful stare that showed their hearts are broken on the child's behalf.
Cold crept across the back of Hatter's neck.
"How long has it been since you were in Wonderland?" Jack asked carefully.
"Uh, I don't know," Alice muttered. "Two months, I think."
Their pity increased. "Alice," Leah said softly. "It's been eight years since you left Wonderland."