She never wanted to leave. Not now, when Wonderland was beautiful and shining as it was, not when the Hatter had been restored, not now, that she knew the truth of what all had happened to her.

The celebration stretched well into the evening, where those left standing under the White Queen's name gathered at her castle to learn the sad news that she had been, regretfully, beheaded by the Knave's Outland knights, who now all lie dead for their dark deeds. Alice was then, in turn, named the new Queen of Wonderland, their champion and savior who could never do them wrong.

Though grieving the loss of their Queen, the White court prepared a great feast in honor of dear Alice, who had done her best to save the woman and had indeed managed to save all of Wonderland. Thus, throughout the night there was plenty of good food, grand wine, and delightful celebratory dancing.

Every time she glanced the Hatter, she could not help but smile. Before he could certainly hold his own, but now, she realized, he was positively dashing and she took note of how he could not look away from long—his emerald gaze made her blush, and her catching him so frequently made him go a bit red as well.

"You know he's positively mad for you," a sudden charming voice purred beside her ear. The Cheshire's face floated sneakily beside her, grinning and giving a wink or two when she simply replied:

"I know."

"Hatter wouldn't blush over just any Alice catching his eye."

"Oh, don't bother him, Chessur, he's clearly not used to his restored face. It wouldn't help to make him feel more insecure," the girl chuckled.

"Clearly you aren't used to it either," the Cat purred.

"Hey!" Alice retorted, "I told him the truth of the matter long before he looked like this. Don't go accusing me of chasing a pretty face."

"Mmhmm," the Cat replied, spinning upside down and fading away as the man in question suddenly drew near.

Alice smiled when he began, "I fear I might be going mad."

"How so?" she inquired earnestly.

"I thought I just saw you chatting with a grinning cat."

"Maybe it's me then," she suggested, "who's gone 'round the bend, that is."

"You'd be better off leaving that to me," the Hatter smiled.

Alice said nothing, still aglow and smiling beside him with her hands folded quaintly behind her back. "So, how are you, after all?" she finally whispered.

At first, all he offered was a shrug. But as he considered her words, the man replied quietly, "I feel…right. I feel as though I am myself again, and that I haven't felt right in quite some time. This being said I feel as though I've lost quite a bit of time and don't even know where to begin deciphering all those memories, all those lost days, hours—"

"Hatter," Alice prodded gently.

He paused midsentence and smiled. "Though it seems one can't escape madness in its entirety. Perhaps I was destined to be some wild, unquelled, bonkered man. It's in my blood, been there quite a while now."

Alice's face smoothed out as he continued, "It was me who had to storm the Red castle years before you even got here, only to go and get poisoned by her majesty." He spat the words out as if they burnt his tongue.

And so he was still touch and go with the madness. Only time would tell if he would recover, and Alice sighed at this fact. She knew in her heart that the Hatter simply must recover.

The pair stood together, near the barren White throne for quite some time, saying nothing as they watched their followers chatting happily and in celebratory fashion. The Red Queen had finally, finally been destroyed as Alice lay in the Hatter's lap not but a few hours before. Alice at last managed to overcome the Knave's hold just as he went to strike down the Hatter for good. It was the fact that she realized she could not live without him—the Hatter, a real man with his own will and his own wants—that drove her into action.

She professed her love for him on more than one occasion and distinctly recalled a kiss cut short, and yet they simply stood there, exchanging short words and long glances as if none of it had happened before. But Alice, oh Alice, she knew the truth now. As she came to stand in the bloodied clearing awash with sunlight, it was as if a veil had finally lifted from her mind. It was all real—the first battle for Wonderland that left her poisoned with the Red Queen's vile spirit, the journey home, the Hatter and the Knave…all of it had truly happened, whether or not she had wanted it to.

So Alice, curious as she was, lifted her gaze once again and murmured, "Hatter? What are we to do now?" They had saved Wonderland, this was true, so what else was possibly left?

"Well, if you're to get terribly technical, I suppose there's two kingdoms needing to be brought together with two sets of government in terrible disarray…" the Hatter began.

"But I'm just Alice," she mumbled, "I'm not the Queen they all tell me I am."

He inclined a bit closer to her. That was exactly what he so loved about her.

Her voice dropped further and she leaned a bit closer, "But I suppose if I was Queen, I would need a King who could fashion me a most excellent crown."

The Hatter chuckled. "Now where are you going to find someone like that?"

She glanced his eyes once more and replied quite evenly, "I haven't the slightest idea."

They suddenly kissed and found that all other senses faded away. They could barely hear the sounds of cheering and laughter from the court; they all delighted at their realized affection for one and other.

With foreheads pressed to one and other, the Hatter soon whispered, "I've waited so long for you, Alice. There were times I didn't even realize it or I felt I'd lost you…but it all makes sense now…for I feel that you make me, me." A shudder traced her spine with his words, as she felt the exact same way. Two halves of the same heart joined together forged an incredible bond, she realized.

"I love you, Tarrant," she barely breathed.

"As I have always loved you, Alice Kingsley."

Then, the realization that struck her in the following moment was like a shot to the heart. Ever since the engagement party in London, she'd been terrified of what her life might become. Back home, it was devoid of adventure, love, of life itself, it seemed. But here, with him, with them, with all of her friends, she had plenty of it to go around and then some. If anything, she should be marrying the Hatter, she realized and her eyes snapped open wide.

But then he kissed her lips again, a gentle and endearing, yet a positively shocking sensation, and the thought fluttered away. Life was to be lived in the here and now, she believed, using that as her excuse for wrapping an arm around his neck and smiling against his touch.

This, this is what she had needed. This is what she had been wanting in her return to Wonderland.

And so the night spilled over into morning, many of the guests taking shelter in the many rooms of the White castle, while Alice was allowed the White Queen's finest guest room. The Hatter led her there and bid her farewell, but as soon as he stepped away from her bedside she pleaded for him not to go. Now that he was here, his mind near completely restored, she simply could not let him leave, for fear he would slip away and recess into his old state of unreachable madness. It did not take much of her puppy-dog eyes and pleading to wear him down, and thus they spent the night in each other's arms, neither getting a better night's sleep in their lives.

Morning made itself known as golden rays flooded the pristine castle. However, the day itself seemed wrong. The guests rose slowly and made their way home seeming a bit more sullen than before, despite the great triumph that occurred just yesterday. Alice woke beside the Hatter with a smile, but by the time they reached the court, they too felt as though rainclouds were lurking in their midst. It wasn't long before they realized just what it was that made them feel that way.

The White Rabbit was crouched beside the throne, looking up at the desolate thing as though it was the cause of all the world's problems.

Mirana was dead. The Red army had indeed cut off the White Queen's head.

Alice crossed the room and touched the Rabbit's shoulder, murmuring quietly, "We shall have a memorial in her honor." The Rabbit struggled to show a smile as his eyes shone with tears. "She will not be forgotten," the girl promised firmly, "for if it were not for her and her healing words, we would still be locked in that battle."

And so it was deemed a day of grieving for the Queen they had so highly revered. Flowers were gathered, candles were burned, and tears were shed. But when it was all said and done, the court still turned to Alice and suggested she stand in as the new Queen of Wonderland.

It wasn't until much later in the day, when the sun was setting and Alice was in the garden, looking out at the beautiful waterfalls in the distance, that the Cat approached her. She looked misty eyed and distant, surely turning over heavy decisions in her mind. The Cat looked a bit downtrodden as well, though it was likely over what he was about to say to her.

"You do realize this means your visit is coming to a hasty end," he murmured, sitting rather still on the white stone bench beside her. "Certainly you must, as even you don't seem too keen on the idea of being Queen of Wonderland."

She did not move, her head still balanced in one hand as she looked out to the setting sun. "Why must it end, Cat? Why must I leave this land now that it is just the way I fancy it? I needn't the crown but I could take it up if I must…"

He bowed his head. "You mustn't. Mirana, even she suspected it was us…Wonderland…all of this that drove you mad in the first place."

She turned and glanced him. "I don't understand. I've been told time and time again I behaved the way I did because the Red Queen had possessed my mind."

"This is true, to an extent," he replied lowly, "but alas, you would have never had to have faced such a tragedy if you had never ventured into this place to begin with. Wonderland has left you with deep scars, Alice, just as your world has with the Hatter. You may not be able to see them, but all of us can feel them."

She touched her arm where the Bandersnatch had clawed her from her previous venture to Wonderland. True, the place had left her with some wicked wounds.

"That is not what I mean," the Cat replied, looking to her solemnly. "Your mind is woven up so intricately with Wonderland that it seems to make it difficult for you to discern one place from the other, especially so if traits or characters from one world pass to the other. Mirana said you would have been fine had the Hatter, and consequently the Knave, not followed you to the other world because there would have been no way for you to remember it."

"How could I forget this place?" she retorted.

The Cat shrugged. "There is something peculiar about crossing the line between the worlds—it afflicts man so horrifically while the White Rabbit can meander about as he so pleases."

"But why must I leave? Why can I not simply stay here, submerged in one place, so my mind will not get confused?"

The Cat smiled halfheartedly. "You've a life in another world, girl. Responsibilities and the like."

Alice pursed her lips. "I don't want to go back. I don't want to live there, where other people try to push me into their view of a perfect life. They don't understand the meaning of life, even! Tell me Cat, what point is there in marrying a man you don't love?"

"Don't ask me to make sense of something so ridiculous," he chuckled. "But that is where you hail from, that is how your life is said to operate."

The girl shook her head. "But I am a free person, it is up to me to decide how my life shall be. And besides, what's to say a person isn't allowed to move to a strange, new land, even if it's only for the sake of adventure?"

The Cat smiled more earnestly. "You are persistent, Alice."

"Because I know what it is that I want," she concluded. Suddenly the girl sat straight and turned to the Cat once again, her lips quivering with a smile.

"What's in your head, girl?" the Cheshire inquired.

"I must ask a favor of you, Cat," she simply replied.

One more day passed in Wonderland. Alice expressed her desires to all of those closest to her, all of whom agreed with her decision, save for the White Rabbit who looked a bit forlorn, as he too knew the ways of the other land: the lives plagued with responsibility (as well as misery). However, upon hearing the Rabbit's dismay, the Hatter's face fell and he soon grew quiet. When Alice pressed him, he too agreed that she was behaving irresponsibly, and the girl found herself staring with mouth agape. Everyone else stared with an equally surprised expression, knowing the Hatter had been the one to insist she stay in Wonderland the last time she ventured there. He soon pulled her aside.

"I can't be the one to make the decision for you Alice, that wouldn't be proper or fair to you. I…I l-love you, and I don't want t-to be without you, but to simply r-run away from your home—" he stammered, unable to meet her eyes after a mere moment.

She cut him off. "This is my home, Tarrant, and you aren't making the decision in the least. All this talk of responsibility and the like…it just makes me think that I'm being told what I must do and how I must act and that being ordered around and just taking everything at face value… That isn't what I wanted for myself! I'll say it now, I'll say it again tomorrow, a hundred years from now: I choose you. I choose Wonderland because this fantastic place is what I truly love."

The two stared at one and other for a long time, Alice struggling over further explanation when the Hatter stepped forward and caught her lips with his own once more. His thumb brushed her cheek before she was leaning into his kiss and begging for more, some sort of reassurance from him, when he instead inched away and murmured, "I am happy for your decision, but I will always understand if you wish to go back."

"Where is your muchness, Hatter? Must I go a little mad to get the real Hatter returned to me?" Alice whispered.

He smiled again. "We're all mad here," the man replied, "I've just found that sometimes reason overstays it's welcome." He paused. "I would most prefer it if you were to stay, how is that?"

As if on cue, a ball of gray and blue fur appeared out of thin air, ready and waiting for Alice's decision with a wicked, little grin.

In the other land, it all went by in the blink of an eye. Just as Mrs. Kingsley was wondering where her daughter had been off to for such a long time, as now it was nearly suppertime after yet another disastrous engagement party where neither man nor woman appeared, she found a note waiting for her at Alice's table setting.

Mother,

I know you have always wanted the best for me, but as I am now nearing twenty years old, I have decided that because it is in fact my life, I should be the one to decide what exactly is the best for me.

I have found an irrevocable and undeniable love with Tarrant. We have decided to elope and I beg of you, please do not be angry. He is a good man and I know you know he will take care of me.

Until we meet again,

Alice

Tears prickled in the corners of the woman's eyes. Satisfied with the response, the Cheshire Cat glided from the shadows of the home's dining room, never to be seen in that strange, strange other land again.

X X X

The End.


A/N: Thank you so much to those of you who have made it this far, those of you who have repeatedly reviewed, and to any and everyone who enjoyed this story. I cannot express how much I appreciate the reviews, as it made writing all the more fun (and helped me get it done in a timely manner)! It's going to be hard to stop plotting for this story. I'm probably going to end up making a liar out of myself...I'll probably be busy writing one-shots until the plotting stops... :)

I hope you enjoyed Alice's Trip There and Back, please write a little review to let me know what you think now that you've reached the end!