She stood at the quarterdeck of the ship. Her mind was light and clear as the seas and her freedom away from London-

"Time?" Mason said somewhere near.

She didn't reply.

His rough pull on her shoulder jerked her from her carefree thoughts. "Alice? Where is your head? I asked you for the time?"

"Oh, I thought you were talking to-" She stopped herself. Of course Time didn't exist in her world... For him to exist in her world, he would never be able to return to Wonderland. And why on earth would he want to leave his precious land in the first place? She shook her head.

"Alice!" He was impatient.

"Five past six," she replied sharply. She glared at him with a scowl on her face. "Can't you study the sun and the stars yourself?"

"I thought you had a pocket-watch," he sneered in response to the blow to his ego.

"I did. But it broke." It certainly was the truth - it had stopped ticking just before her adventure in finding Hatter's family began.

He grunted in careful but brash manner. "We must get it replaced."

"Well I haven't got it on me at the moment," she said, hoping he'd drop the subject.

He glanced at her and she avoided his gaze. "It was your father's watch, yes? At least that's what Mrs Kingsleigh told me." He turned back to their current course and steered. Then he continued, "Said you would never part with it."

Her voice sounded hollow to her own ears. "Everyone parts with everything eventually, Mason. It's just a watch as this is just a ship..." She saw Time's face in her mind. "...as I am just a human-"

Mason scrunched his nose. "Human? What does being a human have to do with any of this?" Then he scoffed and shook his head. He had been warned that Alice Kingsleigh was as curious and odd as the famed Charles Kingsleigh, but he hadn't listened to the stories and had chosen his course to sail with her. Some days her head seemed to be screwed on straight, others- "We haven't even reached another port yet and you're already mad with disease."

She ignored his last bit but she zeroed in on the first half. "I hardly expected you to remember the pocketwatch being my father's."

"Well, Mrs Kingsleigh said if we ran into trouble that you would sooner cut off your own hand than part with it," he said matter-of-factly.

She laughed quietly to herself. "She was quite right."

But then she grew solemn and still as she thought of it now. Her eyes turned bittersweet. "But I gave it away. To a... a keeper. A keeper of fine objects, someone who has a kind soul even though he believes he's as brittle as the metal he's made from- works with. It was a trade. The watch for his friendship and the start of a promise."

"What promise?"

A faint smile curved her lips. "A promise that time would stand still for us, though I hardly believe he'd be capable of standing still."

She thought of his bumbling ways and awkwardness that made him so endearing. He truly did make her happy. She felt whole with him in her life, and she knew he felt the same. He would be waiting for her to return. He'd be waiting the many hours, minutes, and seconds that ticked by until he saw her again. The moment she would step into the hall of the castle, he'd be there. A smile would split his face and they'd embrace soundly as if she had been gone for a lifetime.

"Any time away from you wears on me like a lifetime, my darling," he would say. His gloved hand would trace the side of her face. "I am so very glad you've returned. That you're safe." He'd lift her up and twirl her, making her feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

His frame under her embrace would be metal-ly and clank-y but she would squeeze him tight, imagining he was like her - human, breathing, and firm with muscle.

Mason studied her smitten appearance. He cleared his throat and guessed, "So, you've got a suitor?"

She stepped back from her dreams and reluctantly analyzed her cruel reality.

Time was in charge of all the moments of seconds, minutes, and hours that kept Wonderland moving. And to wield a job as that, he was immortal.

Even if their love persevered and endured, he could never step into her world. He would never meet her mother and sister. He could never give her the family she began to yearn for - a new desire that brewed in her heart. And if she left London for Wonderland, she would never live as long as he.

The mere thought of living out a happy life with him only to join the dead of Wonderland in his hall, had her heart shattering. Hatter's words of the broken cog-man would come true. Her grim mortality darkened her dreams. She gave Mason the truth - the truth that stung her soul. "No, he is not a suitor."

"Excellent!"

But she didn't hear his excited reply. She stepped where Mason had been not a moment before - she had seen him scurry off but it wasn't in her interest to see where he went. She reached out and ghosted her fingers across the wood of the helm. She hoped whatever Time was up to, he wasn't feeling nearly as lonely and broken as she. She sighed weakly.

"Captain?"

She turned at the voice. Then she smiled as she recognized its owner. "Glasdon," she smiled.

"Are you alright?"

"Quite." She glanced at the sea and looked thoughtful. "When do you suppose we'll reach the shores of India?"

He took out his compass and studied the sky and the sea and the wind. "I say... four months and six days more. That is, if this right wind keeps up."

Alice beamed proudly. "We'll see just how right you are. Thank you. You may go back to your post."

Mason appeared beside her and she winced. He looked her up and down, stopping to scrutinize her face. "You're an accomplished captain. Why do you bother in asking him what he thinks?"

She didn't roll her eyes. "Because I have sailed with Glasdon many times. He has told me he wants to become a captain as well." She looked out on the deck and spotted the man adjusting the ropes and sails. "Besides, my father taught me to be kind to those who show you the same kindness, no matter what their rank." She turned the wheel sharply and the main boom swiveled toward Mason.

It struck him and he clung on for dear life as he dangled over the water.

"He also taught me to be particularly sour to those who are rude," she smiled sickly sweet.

I have no ship knowledge apart from the terms used in movies x) I apologize if I got anything severely off. Right toward the end, I tried to describe the scene in Curse of the Black Pearl between Captain Jack and Will, just after they've commandeered the Interceptor.