Hello again! I come bearing a new chapter! I think that this one is much more reasonable in length (that last one was nearly as long as all the other chapters in my other fanfic put together, literally). As promised it carries with it a good dosage of Hatter pov.

Again please review! I greatly appreciate the ones I've received so far and all of the people who have alerted or favorited this story the tip of my hat to you, but I am just bleeding for more input here (dying for input shall come after I start to bleed to death).

Alice belongs to syfy and Nick Willing. All inspiration from the original Alice in Wonderland books belongs to Lewis Carroll.

So I hope you enjoy! Feel free to sit back, relax, and have a good ol' cup o' tea while you read this (provided that it is the normal leaf kind of course).


Hatta looked round once more, and this time a tear or two trickled down his cheek:

but not a word would he say...

- Lewis Carrol

Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There


Chapter 2 -

Tea and Cream Cake



He had to keep moving. Always running. He couldn't let the pain catch up…

Hatter burst into his parent's alcove, tears streaming down his face. His mother was lying down on the couch exhausted from a day's baking having just returned from her shift in the kitchen. Flour still clung to her clothing and was smeared across her face. Without thinking Hatter leapt onto her and buried his face into her clothes willing her to keep him safe from the pain. Concern filled his mother's face as she looked down at her bawling child. Softly she removed his hat and began to smooth back his hair as she wrapped her arms around him and rocked him back and forth gently as she hummed into his ear.

"They took Marchy away," Hatter finally managed to say as he choked back the sobs.

"What dear child?"

"Marchy. The queen said that he's going to be the prince's new whipping boy. That twat's going to get him into all kinds of trouble."

"Now now, dear child, you can't be using such language when talking about the prince."

"I don't care! Let him go kiss a jabberwock!"

"Well that doesn't sound very pleasant."

Hatter just lay in his mother's lap thinking about the prince and Marchy. It felt as though a knife had plunged itself deep into his back and had taken away a piece of his heart. His mother stared down at her son as he began to tremble. Scooping him up into her arms she walked into the kitchen humming the same tune as she placed Hatter in his favorite chair.

"How about I get you a nice piece of cream cake?" she said as she stooped down to look Hatter in the eye. Hatter turned to look at his mother, sniffling as he wiped away his tears on his large sleeve.

"With chocolate sauce on top?" he asked innocently. His mother smiled as she looked at him.

"Of course."

As his mother prepared the cake, Hatter couldn't help but rub his back where the knife had gone in.

"It hurts mom."

Worry flitted across his mother's face as she brought the cake (now dripping in chocolate sauce) over to her son.

"I'm afraid that you just haven't grown into your heart yet Hatter," (This wasn't in fact Hatter's real name, his real name was Davis Sharp, but by that time even his mother had forgotten what she had named him and called him Hatter.) "You're still so small; every feeling is bigger for you. One day you'll grow up, though, dear child (actually his mother called him dear child more than anything else) and you'll be able to walk away from pain as easily as you walk away from steamed cabbage." With that Hatter's mother passed him a rather large piece of cake, making sure to cut the cake afterwards. (Don't ask me why or how she did this, even I'm not sure.) Hatter immediately began scooping one greedy mouthful of cake after another into his mouth and his mother watched him with a warm and satisfied expression.

"Feeling any better?"

Hatter looked up for a moment and realized that the knife wound was gone and there was only a small aching left in his heart.

"The pain's gone!"

"I'm glad."

"You know, the queen called you her best tart chef."

"Well that was nice of her!" his mother said in a rather bubbly manner as she began tidying the kitchen. Hatter just looked down sadly at his cake. He pushed his chair back and walked into the sitting room, picking up his hat as he lightly dusted it off.

"I really liked him," he said as he ran his hands along its brim.

"I know dear child, but Marchy will be alright and with Time's help you'll learn to grow out of him." Hatter gave his hat a good twirl as he placed it back on his head. He wasn't so sure he was just talking about Marchy. As for Time, well… since when was it ever on his side? But he walked back into the kitchen and continued eating his cake hoping that his mother's words were true and it would all be something he would grow out of eventually.


Hatter had definitely grown over the past ten years. Standing at five feet nine inches, he now found his clothes all fit him perfectly (unless he didn't want them to) and people no longer asked if he and Dormouse were related (that's just embarrassing). He had also managed to finally grow into his heart, so to speak, although whether that was a result of the sudden growth spurt he had five years ago or all of the tea he drank, well, who could say?

Speaking of tea, that measly four of spades was supposed to be bringing by a new shipment from the casino that day. Hatter hated suits, they never smiled and they acted as if they were the most superior things in all of Wonderland, apart from the queen that is. With a loud sigh Hatter managed to roll himself out of bed and dragged himself over to his claw footed bathtub to start the hot water for his bubble bath. An hour later after he was done scrubbing himself with every sweet smelling concoction from Wonderland and the other world combined, he slipped down into his office and perused through his glass wardrobe. After a moment's thought he decided upon the crimson militia jacket with gold trim, black pants with the same gold embroidery down the sides, a white shirt neatly pressed, a lovely flamboyant purple and maroon scarf, and of course to top it all off, a black cane and his black coke hat. Then all that was left was his eyeliner and mascara and bring on the troops!

As usual, though, the suit was running late. No one in Wonderland ever seemed to be on time for anything. Hatter himself had once shown up for an appointment two days late. So, with some time to kill (and he wondered why Time was so unfriendly towards him), Hatter decided to mow his lawn (and by that I mean take a pair of scissors and a magnifying glass and make sure that every blade of perfectly green grass surrounding his desk was evenly cut). Hatter was a strong believer in the Wonderland philosophy of "ordered chaos." It wasn't until he was finally done that he heard on knock on his back door. Upon taking a glance through the peep hole and confirming that it was in fact spade number 4, Hatter unlocked the door and opened it with a flash of his grin and a twirl of his cane.

"And to what might I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"Cut the jibe Hatter, you know I'm here with your next shipment," the suit said as glanced over his clipboard.

"Really? Was that today? Completely slipped my mind."

"Yeah well, I've got two crates here of the regulars and a special box of the new one the casino's whipped up. It's called Serenity."

"Serenity? Isn't that the name of a ship?" Hatter asked with a smile. Nothing. Sure it may not have been one of Hatter's funnier jokes, but still the suit could have at least tried to act friendly. He had been doing business with him for what? Almost five years now.

"Sign here."

"Keep your tie on. I need to check and make sure this new product can match up to my teahouse's reputation." The suit sighed as he removed one of the bottles filled with serenity and handed it over to Hatter. Hatter held it up to a light and shook the bottle watching as the red liquid swirled around inside. Removing the cap, he sniffed it first and then took a small sip. His eyes widened as a vision of his mother serving him cream cake flashed before them. He took a deep breath and allowed the memory to fade away but hung on to the feeling that came with it. With a lopsided grin he grabbed the clipboard away from the suit and scrawled off his wonderfully calligraphic signature (John Hancock had nothing on Hatter).

"A pleasure as always," Hatter said still grinning as he hooked his cane over the trolley that had the tea crates on top of it and wheeled it into his office. The four of spades merely grunted in acknowledgment and quickly left. Once he was gone Hatter buzzed Dormy over the intercom system to tell him that the new shipment had arrived and then grabbing two bottles of the new serenity elixir he strolled over to his desk. He placed one of the bottles in the glass cabinet he had on his wall where he kept a sample of every emotion his tea house carried. The contents of the other bottle he poured into a large silver drink mixer he kept on a self, adding its contents to the liquid already collecting inside it. As he started shaking the mixer Dormy quietly scurried into his office.

"The new shipment of tea has arrived?"

"Yes, and the casino's come out with a new concoction. It's called serenity. I want you to start moving it right away," Hatter said as he looked up. However, his words fell on deaf ears as Dormouse had already fallen asleep on his feet. With a sigh Hatter walked over to Dormy and snapped his fingers in front of him.

"Wake up sleeping beauty!"

"I wasn't asleep. Wasn't asleep," Dormy said as he staggered awake. "Start selling right away I gotcha."

"See that you do."

"How good is this stuff anyway?"

"I'm adding it to my own special brew aren't I?" Hatter said as he sat back down by his desk twirling his cane with one hand and rhythmically swirling his drink mixer with the other. Dormy merely shrugged.

"Your next shipment of supplies is ready for the Resistance by the way. Aren't you going to go take care of that?"

"Dormy you know that I don't deal with Dodo until after tea time."

"Yes, of course," Dormy said as he begun wheeling the tea trolley out of the office, already half asleep even as he continued out the door. Hatter shook his head and got out a glass tea cup and saucer and carefully poured the concoction he had been preparing into the cup. A pale brown liquid soon filled the cup and Hatter set the mixer down in its place as he eased back into his white wing chair with his cup of tea. Hatter took a small tentative sip and let out a sigh of contentment.

"The perfect blend of tea, shaken not stirred," Hatter said with a small chuckle, laughing at his own joke (someone had to). As Hatter slowly closed his eyes he allowed the warmth of the tea to spread through his body having now forgotten entirely about the vision of his mother, even the taste of her cream cake.


Ta da! So what do you think? I know not the most exciting chapter but still an enlightening one I think. I'll give a big virtual cream cake to whoever can tell me what Hatter's real name: Davis Sharp is a reference to. Hint, hint, it has to do with Hatter's other name. Offer only good up to the fourth chapter.

I think it would be interesting if Wonderlanders really do feel emotions in a literal sense like in Catepillar's mental hospital where someone flying high has to be brought back down to earth or someone swollen with self-importance has literally grown in size. Therefore Hatter really does feel like someone's stabbed him in the back and not only in a figurative sense. Luckily a little cream cake goes a long way in Wonderland. I can only imagine what would happen to Hatter if he suffered from a broken heart. So the next chapter will switch back to Jack and his exciting adventures (hopefully) in our world!

Again please review! The fate of this story's counting on you!

(I realized that this kind of rhymes so I've decided to always sign off with it except for right now where I'm signing off with a parenthesis but I don't think that a parenthesis technically counts anyway since it's a parenthesis.)