Thanks for the feedback, guys. I was starting to get worried. Here's Chapter 6 and yay! Charlie! I adore Charlie. I want one of my own to sleep at the foot of my bed.

Progress back to the Tea Shop was slower than it had been leaving, as Alice was even more tired and sore than she had been before the run in with Dodo. Hatter was taking the most direct route, which should have made the trip shorter. Unfortunately, he had not offered Alice his hand again and she refused to ask for it, so every time they walked along a ledge, their progress slowed to a crawl as she pressed against whatever building and crept overcautiously along. She knew he'd said they would figure out a plan when they got back to the Tea Shop, but she needed something to distract her from her fear.

"Any ideas on what we're going to do?" she asked Hatter.

"The Looking Glass is the only way to get you home and it is here in the city, but it's the most heavily guarded piece of kit in Wonderland," he broke it down for her.

"What about Jack? How do we get him out of the casino?"

"We don't."

"What?" That was not an option. Hatter stopped, turning back to her and Alice envied him his ease on the narrow walkway.

"Have you not been paying attention?"

"I can't just leave him here. It's my fault he was kidnapped," she insisted. If she'd managed to escape from the Scarab, there had to be other holes in the Queen's system. They just had to exploit them.

"Why is it your fault?" His eyes fell to her split lip, obviously thinking along the lines that if she'd been able to stop the White Rabbit, Jack would be safe. Which was true, but not what she'd meant.

"He was trying to-" Propose. That's what he was trying to do. But she wouldn't tell Hatter about all that. "-surprise me or something. Somehow he got ahold of this ring, because of me, and now he's in a world of trouble and I'm the only one who can get him out of it."

Hatter scoffed, brows furrowing incredulously. "How'd you figure that?"

It wasn't ego or delusion, it was logic. "I have the ring. They want the ring. I can use it to negotiate his release." Simple enough. The man shook his head in vehement denial.

"No. No, you can't negotiate with the Queen," he insisted. "She's crazy. You have to cut your losses. You get the Hell out of here while you still can."

"I already told you, I can't leave Jack." Was the man so used to looking out for number one, he didn't understand any longer what it meant to put someone else before yourself?

"Because he's your boyfriend and you love him?" Hatter inquired, making it sound so trivial.

"Of course I care about him," Alice responded, barely stuttering over the C. They'd only been together two months. Saying you love someone is a big step. Huge. His brows lifted slightly.

"Oh, you care about him. Trust me, I know a thing or two about that," he told her, leaning in close for emphasis. "And, after much chocolate and cream cake, 'I care' turns into 'what was his name again?'."

Alice scowled. Who was he to judge what she felt? "How much cream cake does it take to do that with 'I let him die to save my own ass'?"

She could see the muscle in the side of his jaw twitch, could practically hear the man's teeth grinding. He turned away from her without an answer and started walking again. As they neared the end of the building, a shout caught their attention. Hatter stopped, holding his hand back to tell Alice to stay still. He crept forward and peered around the corner. After a moment, he waved her up and she moved to stand behind him.

"Stay close," he ordered quietly, then started down the walkway that led to the Tea Shop. He brought them to a halt again, at the red phone booth before the bridge. Alice's eyes rounded as she saw the condition of his business. The front door hung half off its hinges and several of the windows were broken out. The red electronic crawl flickered, the messaged changed to a single, baleful word: Closed. On the porch area stood several men. Some of them looked like customers of Hatter's, but the rest wore black suits and sunglasses like the ones who had taken Jack. All but two. One wore a long black robe and strange tri-lobed hat. He was talking to Ratty. Hatter hissed through his teeth.

"You work with rats long enough and you turn into one, eh?" he growled angrily. Alice leaned up to whisper.

"What is that?" By "that", she meant the last man. It had the body of a man, anyway, but it's head was solid, white, and looked like a rabbit's; long ears and all.

"Nothing I've ever seen before," Hatter shrugged. He didn't seem too disturbed by it, but Alice supposed you got used to seeing crazy things when you live in Wonderland.

"You seen her?" The rabbit-headed man demanded sharply of the customer he was holding by the lapels of his jacket. His accent seemed out of place in Wonderland, heavy-throated and thickly nasal, like he'd stepped straight out of Goodfellas. Hatter stiffened.

"Wait," he leaned forward slightly as if doing so would get him a better look at the strange being. "No, it can't be."

"What?" the girl hissed. Before he could answer, Rabbit-head, displeased with the answers he was getting, punched the man he held in the stomach. Instead of grunting or gasping, as one would expect, the man cried out in agony. As his attacker pulled his hand back, it was followed by a splash of bright red that stained his slacks and the graying boards of Hatter's Tea Shop porch. Alice's mouth dropped open in utter, paralyzing shock. She could not fathom what was happening right in front of her.

Rabbit wiped the knife on the man's shoulder and put it away. His head tilted to the side curiously as his victim blubbered and stumbled back against the railing, trying to stop the bleeding. He turned, trying to run away, but his attacker followed.

"Get outta here," Rabbit growled in disgust and gave the man a hard shove, sending him down the porch stairs and off the side of the bridge entirely. His scream echoed against the buildings, fading quickly as he plummeted. Alice's fingers gripped Hatter's arm, nails digging into the leather of his jacket. A horrified cry caught in her throat as it closed off, coming out only as a sickly gurgle. She released him when her knees gave out and she dropped to the ground. Her hands pressed against the glass of the phone booth, as the world spun around her, black spots dancing before her eyes, threatening to take over her vision entirely. When strong hands gripped her arms and pulled, she resisted, as if shaking her head and sobbing "no" would change anything about the last minute and a half.

"Come on, Alice. Get up!" Hatter ordered hoarsely. "Get up!"

Somehow, her legs obeyed where her mind would not and she found herself running behind Hatter as he dashed between buildings, their hands locked together. The blood rushing through her veins carried a new surge of adrenaline with it and, as her mind cleared, she became aware of shouting behind her. Rabbit and his cohorts must have spotted them and given chase. Hatter pulled her into a building that creaked and groaned threateningly, then out of it again through a gaping hole in the wall. They were now on the edge of the canal, only a few hundred yards from where it opened out unto the vast lake she'd fallen into not two hours ago. The sun shone brighter here, not blocked by the canopy of a concrete and glass forest.

"This way. It's my smuggling boat," he explained in a shout over his shoulder, heading them down a grassy hill to the bank. There was a small dock and, indeed, a boat that looked like it should belong to Hatter - like something out of Italy circa 1975. He hopped into it, turning back and taking her other hand to help her down into the craft, releasing her with the command, "Untie that line."

Alice dropped to her knees between the wood cross supports of the vessel, frantic fingers making quick work of the anchor line despite her harried state of mind. She heard Hatter pull the engine cord, the outboard motor sputtering strongly, but not starting.

"Hang on, there's a knack to this," he commented and pulled the line again, garnering the same result. "Which apparently, I've never learned." He slapped the cover back into place and scrambled to the bow of the boat, taking the seat behind the wheel and trying the key. "Come on, come on!"

Alice stood, opening the engine panel herself. She saw a red primer bulb and pumped it a couple times, then pulled the cord as hard as she could. The engine gurgled and roared to life.

"Yes!" Hatter threw the throttle all the way forward, knocking her off her feet and to her knees on the hard bottom of the boat. She looked back and could see Rabbit and his posse standing on the bank, impotently watching their quarry escape. "Lord, what would I do without you?"

She turned at the waist, finding Hatter facing her, arm across the back of his seat and - again - with a smile inappropriate to the situation. She turned away from him, her stomach roiling, and bent over the side of the boat. There was nothing left in her to be expelled, but that didn't stop her body from trying. Hatter reached back as she convulsed futilely, but, as he couldn't let go of the wheel, his fingers were barely able to brush against her shoulder.

"Hey," he called over the rush of wind and water and the constant drone of the engine. "You're alright. Alice?"

Embarrassed by her dry heaves, Alice pushed his hand away. She leaned her face over the rushing water, letting the cold spray wash over her face and neck. This was too much. More than too much. She moved only when the pain of kneeling on the wooden bottom of the boat as it bounced across the lake got to be too much, finally making her way to the bow and taking the seat beside Hatter. He slowed their speed so the roar of the engine wouldn't drown out his voice.

"Are you okay?" If she hadn't been so completely drained, mentally and emotionally, she'd have smacked him.

"He killed that man," she said, hoarsely. Hatter's hand covered hers and squeezed, drawing her gaze to his. Leaning over the side of the vessel, Alice had been sure that smile meant he was unaffected by the murder they'd just witnessed, but looking into his dark eyes now, she knew that was untrue. There was sorrow there and pain, both heavy burdens.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. What a stupid thing to say. It was ridiculous! It wasn't Hatter's fault the Rabbit had killed the poor man. There was nothing he could have done to stop it, even if he'd had time to try. It was what you said when you had nothing to say at all.

But, inconceivably, it actually helped. So, he didn't have the words to make it all better. The fact that he tried was a comfort to the girl. She would not have been ale to articulate the terror and horror she was feeling, anyway. Nor the strangely sharp sense of isolation. It were as though Rabbit's blade had cut her off from the rest of the world as surely as it had cut that man's life short. Amazingly, without perfectly chosen words, Hatter let her know that she was not alone. He was right there with her. Alice wanted to thank him, but didn't know how, so the girl just nodded silently. He seemed to understand and said nothing more, turning his gaze back to the lake, his hand keeping firm hold on hers until she made the choice to pull away.

Jack. At some point in the day, the need to rescue Jack had turned from a mission she must fulfill to a way to keep her sanity. As long as she had that to focus on, she could push everything else down deep inside; bottle it up like Hatter's tea and pretend it didn't matter. Not the healthiest approach, maybe, but it worked in the short run.

"How do I get to the casino?"

Hatter looked at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. "You're kiddin'."

"I still have to-"

"Save Jack, I know," he shook his head in disgust. "I already told you, you can't negotiate with the Queen." He paused, brows furrowing as a thought came to him. "But the White Rabbit is a different kettle of onions," he reasoned out loud. "Perhaps they'll do a deal. It's a long shot, but it's the only one we've got to get us through the Looking Glass."

Alice blinked, sure she'd heard him wrong or he'd misspoken. "Us?"

For a moment, he remained silent, eyes on the water before them. When he spoke, his tone was uncharacteristically subdued. "I don't know if you noticed, Alice, but my shop was ransacked. I'm homeless." She had been so preoccupied with her own inner turmoil, she had completely overlooked the fact that by stepping into Hatter's life, Alice had brought the whole thing crashing down around his ears. Her heart ached with guilt and grief for him. "I'm a target, not only for the Suits, but the Resistance as well and there's only so many places in Wonderland I can hide. The way I see it, I've only got one option."

"What is it?" Her voice cracked, eyes burning with guilty tears she instinctively held back.

"Go back with you," he said, fast like pulling off a band-aid. "To your world." He looked at her, obviously wanting to gauge her reaction. The girl quickly looked away, sniffing and wiping at her nose like she was trying not to sneeze.

"So, you think I'll just let you sleep on my couch?" she asked with forced levity. He seemed to be a fan of flippancy that was apropos of nothing and either she joked now or she would burst into tears.

Hatter didn't answer right away and Alice worried she had misread him horribly. But then he chuckled and she could let out the breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Couch? I should get your bed and you sleep on the couch." If he asked it, she'd do that and more. How do you make up for destroying someone's life? A dull rumbling behind them was quickly growing into a far off roar and both turned to see what they already knew it was: a Scarab bearing down on them.

"Before we do anything, we have to shake that royal flush," the man stated, shoving the throttle forward again and pushing the engine so hard the bow lifted at least a foot out of the water. What good that did, Alice didn't know. There was no way his speed boat could outrun what amounted to a jet. He turned sharply, heading for the shore. Here the bank was thickly lined with trees, a dense forest stretching away for miles and miles.

He slowed the boat and let it bump to a stop against the ground. Quickly shutting off the engine, he stood and jumped to shore, holding out his hand for Alice to toss him the anchor line. He pulled the boat right up against the bank and tied it off. "Come on." She took the hands he offered, letting him help her off the craft and onto solid ground. When the man turned to head into the woods straight way, she caught his arm.

"Shouldn't we hide it or something?"

Hatter shook his head. "I want them to find it."

Alice blinked in surprise. "What? Why?"

He took her elbow, helping her up the steep embankment. "If that weirdo leading the posse is who I think it is, then he's got one Hell of a nose for blood." A distant animal cry made him pause and her heart skip a beat. "And this is the place to find it."

"What was that?" It sounded like a fucking dinosaur. Please, God, don't let there be dinosaurs in Wonderland. Hatter pulled her close to his side.

"There's things in these woods that defy imagination," he told her ominously. Dinosaurs would have been an improvement, then. "Come on. We haven't got much time." He kept his hold on her, starting off into the forest and she followed obediently.

"Tell me what's going on, Hatter," Alice demanded, eyes wide and watchful. It wasn't as though she'd never been in the woods. Her parents (when she'd had two, and then her mother alone later) had rented a tiny cabin on a small lake in upstate New York for two weeks every summer for as long as she could remember. She'd explored the surrounding area thoroughly, but thatwas nothing like the forest she found herself in now. There weren't even bears in those woods, let alone things that defied imagination.

"Alice, we can't shake the posse and we can't fight them, either." No, they couldn't. Even if she'd been in top shape and not battered, bruised and exhausted, Alice wouldn't have been able to take on six men and a killer Rabbit. "So, there's only one thing left to try."

He said it as though she should know what he meant, but she hadn't a clue. If they weren't running off in the woods to hide, then what were they doing? "What one thing?"

"Lead them into a trap." Okay, she supposed that made sense. But what kind of trap could they set with just the two of them and very little time? Hatter was looking around, listening, and Alice instinctively followed suit - though she had no idea what he was looking or listening for. "Keep your breathing shallow."

"What?" A loud trumpeting roar rang out through the trees and stopped her in her tracks. Hatter had stopped, too, and was holding his breath. "Hatter?"

He let go of her arm and motioned her away. "Find a tree you can climb."

"Do what?" she demanded incredulously, voice tight with fear, clueless as to what was going on. As if she could find a tree to climb anyway, none of them had branches any lower than twenty feet up. He looked down at her.

"The trap we talked about? This is it," he explained quickly. "I'm the bait. Go." He started off towards the roar determinedly. Rather than following his orders, Alice hurried after him.

"What do you mean you're the bait?" she demanded, catching his arm.

"Listen, I'm gonna lead the Jabberwock back to the posse-"

"You're what?" she squeaked. She'd read Lewis Carroll in school and in her mind she heard the words: The jaws that bite, the claws that catch.

"Alice, less of the questions. Please, just go," he implored, turning her under his hands and giving her a little push to get her moving. Alice was having none of it and was right back beside him, hands gripping his jacket.

"Are you out of your mind?!" she hissed. "You can't use yourself as bait for a monster!"

He tried to pull her hands free again. "Alice, I know what I-"

Another roar cut him off, so close Alice felt it shake the air around her. The ground shook, too, with heavy thudding footfalls as the beast approached. They both came to the same horrifying realization at the same time - that the sounds were not coming from in front of them, but behind -and turned in unison. The Jabberwock looked just as it had in the illustration her child's eye had seen years ago, minus the vest. Dragon-like, with scaly hide and wings; long limbs that ended in hands with long fingers that, in turn, ended with seven inch long, razor claws. A bulbous head with chameleon eyes and giant buck teeth swung this way and that on a too long, serpentine neck, then stopped, homing in on the two stupid humans standing in his path.

"Run," Hatter told her and she obeyed without hesitation, shooting off into the trees as fast as her short legs would carry her. It wasn't a good situation to start off with and things quickly went from bad to worse. Instead of following Hatter back to the posse, the Jabberwock took off after her - probably some animal instinct that told it she was easier prey. It was right, too. Hatter's boots, far too big for her feet, were ungainly and threw off her gait. Plus, her body had been pushed harder and abused more in the last few hours than ever before in her life. Panic erupted into full bloom in her chest as Alice realized the creature was gaining and her legs were going to give out any minute. It would have caught her already, but the beast was even more graceless than she was in her current state and actually tripped and fell once, letting her regain a few precious yards' lead.

"Alice!" She heard Hatter's shout behind her, behind the Jabberwock. She wanted to tell him to go and save himself, but couldn't get enough air to form the words. When her boot caught on a small mound of dirt and underbrush, she went sprawling with a shriek. She could feel the thing's breath wash across her back, even through the velvet coat and knew she was dead. Still, the girl tried to scramble away. A loud clack of teeth nearly broke her ear drums, but, she realized, the monster had not bitten into her. Flipping into her back, Alice found herself face to face with the Jabberwock, which, in addition to scary and lumbering, was also stupid and had wedged itself between two tree trunks instead of going around them. It roared and snapped, back legs digging deep furrows in the ground as it tried to push through and reach its meal. The girl tried to squirm away but had fallen into a dip in the forest floor, probably where some animal had dug in to nap or some such thing, and raising herself over the edge would put her in range of the gnashing jaws.

"Alice!" Hatter slid through the dead leaves as he tried to stop, the Jabberwock snapping at him and making him rear back sharply. Before Alice could warn him away, the man had drawn his hand back and thrown a punch at the monster. It actually fell to the ground for a moment, head swinging about wildly as it brayed like a donkey from shock and pain.

Hatter pulled the girl to her feet and away from the beast. She stumbled twice and nearly fell, slowing them down greatly, but he just urged her on. Suddenly, the ground dropped away under her feet and Alice fell with a scream, landing hard on cold, unforgiving ground. The impact knocked the air from her lungs and she struggled to catch her breath. Looking around her dazedly, she found herself awkwardly positioned between a few saplings. No, not saplings, just sticks thrust into the ground. Her eyes rounded as she took in the sharpened tips. If she'd fallen slightly to the left or right, she'd have been impaled!

"Ow," came a grunted complaint from beside her.

"Hatter!" She tried to sit up.

"Stay still!" he ordered. Alice dropped back down, eyes wide as the Jabberwock's head snaked over the edge of the pit. It growled menacingly and lunged, trying to take a bite out of her. Instead, it got a stab in the gums for it's trouble and brayed again, purple blood spattering onto the girl's bare legs from the wound. The monster drew back, apparently having had enough of the troublesome duo, and stalked away with a final angry roar.

Alice rolled to her side, trying to squirm around the punji sticks that separated them, scared Hatter might not have been so lucky as her in avoiding getting skewered. "Are you okay?" she managed to say, her voice shaking badly.

"Define 'okay'," he snarked, sitting up with a grunt. Relief washed through her, he wasn't speared.

"Vermin!" someone yelled from above. Both Alice and Hatter's heads snapped up. "Saboteurs!" Alice decided she must have cracked her skull in the fall, because there was no way an eighty year old man in a full suit of armor was standing at the top of that pit, yelling insults at them. "Anarchists! I was this close to catching him!" the hallucination went on, holding up his hands a few inches apart for illustration. He glanced at them and readjusted the distance. "This close." He dropped his hands again and glared down at the two of them. Alice gripped one of the wooden spikes, struggling to her feet.

"Are you okay?" her companion asked, doing the same. She nodded, but felt far from okay.

"Degenerate bagheads!" came another shout from above.

"You could be helping us out of here instead of bleating like an old goat," Hatter sniped up at the man, redonning his hat with a flourish. Okay, so if Hatter saw him, too, then he must be real. The knight huffed through his lips like an irritated Saint Bernard and disappeared. Hatter turned his attention back to Alice, maneuvering closer. "You sure?"

She nodded again. The wetness on her legs was starting to cool into a sticky mess. Ugh. A rope fell into the pit from above. So, thankfully, the man had taken Hatter's suggestion. Alice took one look at it and knew she wouldn't be able to climb out. Hatter knew it, too, apparently.

"I'll go first. When I'm out, tie the rope around your…" he motioned at her enigmatically and when Alice's perplexed expression remained in place, he gave in. "Under your bum, okay?"

The fact that he'd been reluctant to say "bum" to her was incredibly funny and she actually felt like laughing. She was too tired and sore to do it, but she felt like it, which was just as good. She touched her index finger to thumb, other fingers standing straight in the universal symbol for "okay".

As she tied herself off, Alice heard the two arguing. The only thing she could make out clearly was Hatter's, "Shut up and help me." She tried the best she could to aide in her ascent, feeling weak and foolish for not being able to do it on her own. Safely out of the pit, she untied the rope and let it fall. Evidently unsatisfied by her telling him twice that she was unhurt, Hatter decided to make certain of it himself, and started circling her to check for injuries.

The old knight started coiling his rope back up, spitting the strangest insults Alice had ever heard at the two of them. "Subverters! Pig-pushing flecks!" He stalked towards them and clenched his fists angrily. "Bug bashers!"

The girl had had enough. "Who the Hell are you?" It was a question that could, theoretically, cover all her bases - his name, why he was yelling at them, why he was in a suit of armor in the middle of the woods…. With two horses.

He drew himself to his full height, which was considerable, and marched towards them. "I… am a knight," he stated proudly. The effect was ruined, however, when he stepped into a hole which left him shorter than both Hatter and Alice for the moment. He was still quite a sight, wearing chain mail and white armor that had seen better days - patched with bits of random metal and obviously repainted over and over. He had a long, narrow face and hair as white as his steel garb, thin and wispy and matching his beard, which somehow kept its wavy shape, ending in a ridiculous, but fitting curl. He recovered quickly. "The White Knight, to be precise. Sir Charles Eustace Fotheringale le Malvois the third." He announced his name with grandiose emphasis. Then, asked pompously. "And who are you?"

His voice wavered and trilled like something out of an overacted bit of Shakespeare. Well, she certainly wasn't so grand as all that. "I'm Alice Ham-"

Armor clanked loudly as Sir Charles suddenly surged towards her. "Alice? The Alice?" God, not this again. "The Alice?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes in irritation. "No, just Alice."

"Just… Alice…" Sir Charles looked confused and disappointed, looking off to the side and trying to work it out in his head.

"I thought all you guys were wiped out years ago?" Hatter piped up beside her. This caught the knight's attention back.

"Well, you thought wrong," he admonished arrogantly. "As you can see, I'm as fit as a butcher's dog." His slapped his hands against his chest plate with a clang, belying the statement with a little cough. Alice glanced at Hatter. A bunch of knights could be a huge help at this point.

"Are there any others like you?" She asked hopefully. Sir Charles chuckled.

"Certainly not," he exclaimed amusedly, moving away and bending to pick up his shovel and various tools. "I'm a one-off. My nan used to say that if I were the only eligible bachelor left in the world, then there wasn't a warthog or wallflower who'd polish my escutcheon." He laughed at the joke, finding it a good chuckle.

"No… Sir. I mean are there any other knights in these woods? Your… comrades in arms?" she tried again. The White Knight scoffed incredulously.

"Heavens no! Are you mad? We were all wiped out years ago," he told her. Alice's hope vanished like smoke in the wind.

"You dug that pit on your own?" Hatter asked. Yes, because the fact that the old man can dig is the important thing here. Sir Charles dropped his gear and turned to the younger man, highly insulted.

"You think I'm too old?" He stalked over, driving the other two back under the force of his rant. "Well, let me tell you something knug face. Youth is vastly overrated. I may have put on a few years, but I'm crafty. I've a very inventive and calculating mind stacked high with groundbreaking, state of the art ideas. I invent all sorts of things!" He finally stopped, turning his attention to Alice, whom he apparently liked better than Hatter. Of course, she was more polite. "The beehive mousetrap, for instance." He said it so excitedly, she thought he expected her to know what that was. Fortunately, he moved on, going back to berating Hatter. "This here pit, as you so rudely call it, is my third attempt at the Grrrravity-" rolling his R very dramatically "- Assisted Snare, Mark IV."

Something seemed to catch his notice then and he wandered a little away with a contemplative expression on his face.

"He's mad as a box of frogs," Hatter turned to her. Between Hatter's colloquialisms and Sir Charles's overly ostentatious speaking style, Alice was starting to feel a bit mad herself. Then to Charlie, he asked - yes, rudely, "How the Hell have you survived?"

The knight held up his hands for silence, listening hard for something. Whatever it was lost his interest and he looked to the younger man. "Hmm? Oh, yes." He straightened up again and gave Hatter a charmingly blasé smile. "I'm a knight." He chuckled and moved to go passed them again, presumably to pick up his discarded shovel. "And I'm an inventor, as I said. Though, if I'm honest, it's strictly on a part time basis."

"You don't say?" Hatter commented sarcastically. The old man stopped before Alice, a mischievous expression taking over his face.

"And I dabble in the Black Arts… now and then." His voice dropped to a theatrical moan, hands coming up to add to the effect. "Soothsaying… toenail readings… That sort of thing." He might have been out in the woods alone for way too long, but the guy was starting to grow on her. Then, he snatched up her hand. "Here, let me show you. Give me your palm-"

Alice yanked her hand away, for it had been her left hand which still sported the troublesome ring. "Don't," she protested, taking a step back. Sir Charles's just stared at her.

"What's that on your finger," he asked. Hatter tensed and moved so close to her side, their arms were pressed together.

"Nothing," Alice tried to lie, but it was plain the old man already knew the truth. His face went slack with awe.

"It's the sacred ring," he exulted. "The Stone of Wonderland. Our ring." He took a tiny step forward with each statement and Alice stepped back. Hatter planted a hand on the knight's chest plate and pushed him back, slipping between them.

"Don't get too excited, granddad. The ring stays on the lady's finger, okay?" he asserted firmly. Sir Charles turned away, overcome with emotion. He dropped to his knees and seemed to pray or exalt, to… someone; God, the fates, who knows?

"It is meant to be!" he exclaimed. "This time, this place, this meeting in the woods!" He trailed off into incoherent mumbling and Hatter grabbed her hand.

"O-kay. We need to get away from him, before he gets us killed." He started off, pulling Alice behind, but she tugged him to a stop.

"Wait. Maybe he can help us." Now he looked at her like she was nuts.

"Have you forgotten about the guy that's tailing us? Rabbit-head, nose for blood, remember?" He gestured to the knight derisively. "This freakshow is gonna draw his attention for sure."

"If this knight has survived out here alone, he must know a thing or two," she pointed out. Hatter shook his head, but she moved to go back to the old man. She got about as far as the length of her and his arms, as the man wouldn't budge and refused to let go of her hand. "Sir Charles, there are some men after us who want the Stone and will kill us to get it. Do you know of a place we can hide; lay low for a while?"

"The stars are aligned in a cosmic array of hope!" was the answer she got. Great.

"And you want to put your faith in him?" Hatter snarked. Alice huffed, throwing up her hand in exasperation.

"Yes." She rubbed her temple, her head was starting to ache. Alot. "Look, I know he might be nuts and a hundred years old, but he's obviously a survivor."

"And I'm not deaf," the knight chimed in pointedly. He got to his feet, his expression lucid once more. All pride and pomp again, he declared," Justalice-" Oh, come on. Really? "-I will be honored to escort you, your goods, and…" He curled his lip in distaste, eyes barely flicking at Hatter. "Vassal. To my sacred kingdom." He finished it off with a bow, awaiting her reply.

"Did he just call me your vessel?" the man at her side inquired, sounding vaguely insulted.

"No, vassal," Alice told him dismissively. "Thank you, noble sir. I am ceaselessly grateful for your assistance." Taking hold of her skirt with her free hand, she curtsied. Turns out those years in Drama Club hadn't been a waste of time after all. The knight puffed up like a peacock and strutted back to the pit to gather his things. Hatter was looking at her with raised eyebrows, nonplussed. "What?"

He shook his head, waving his empty hand in disregard, then let her lead him after the old man. "So, I'm your vassal, is that right?"

"Don't be so sensitive," she admonished wearily.

"Oh, I'm not," he insisted, lips quirked into a teasing half-smile. "I just wish I'd known so I could have remembered the rose petals to throw at your feet."

"I prefer carnations. Do they have carnations in Wonderland?"

He shrugged. "Must have, every flower that ever grew grows somewhere in Wonderland. I'll be sure to get some for when you take tea with the Duke and Duchess."

Sir Charles was securing his tools to a dappled grey stallion when they reached him. He quickly finished and took the other horse, an auburn colored mare, by the reigns. "My lady, this is Guinevere. She shall be your mount."

"Thank you, again, Sir Charles. Your generosity knows no bounds." Maybe it was because she was so exhausted that she kept up with the flowery speech. He seemed to glow under her praise, however, so it wasn't a bad thing.

"It is my pleasure, My lady. And you may call me 'Charlie'." It was a just odd enough thing to say to make her want to laugh again. He handed the reigns to Hatter - her vassal, of course - and went to mount his own horse.

"Right." Releasing her hand, Hatter gripped the pommel and put his boot in the stirrup, swinging himself up into the saddle so easily, Alice wondered just how often he rode horseback. If they had jets and speedboats in Wonderland, they had to have cars.

"How come I have to ride behind you?" she asked, stepping close to the mare and resting a hand on her flank. The man looked down at her with a smirk.

"Do you know how to ride a horse?"

Well, he had her there. She scowled petulantly. "Hey, who's the vassal here?" He chuckled and offered her his hand, taking his boot from the stirrup so she could use it to swing herself up. Hatter told her how to sit, where to put her legs - tucked just behind his - and to move with the mare's gait and not against it.

They went at a sedate pace, Sir Charles - Charlie insisting the netted device that trailed behind Guinevere would obliterate their tracks, making them impossible to follow. Hatter was shocked to see it actually did what the old man said it would. The tracks vanished and shoots of new grass popped up where ever they went. The realization that magic apparently existed in Wonderland was muted by Alice's heavy fatigue.

"Huh, it even works over mud. It's wiping the tracks clean away," he commented, impressed. "Maybe Senile Sam does have a trick or two up his… Escutcheon."

Alice shook her head, a ghost of a smile and a single chuckle all she could manage. Not long into the trek, Charlie started to sing. The same line over and over like a broken record. "Heeeey nonny, nonny- the wind and the rain. The wind and the rain." It sounded vaguely familiar to the girl. Normally, she'd have been able to figure it out in a few minutes, but not until Hatter asked him to stop the second time did she recognize what the phrase reminded her of. A song from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night - which she had starred in as Viola in high school.

"When that I was and a little tiny boy, with a hey, ho, the wind and the rain.. A foolish thing was just a toy, for the rain it raineth every day… But when I came to man's estate, with a hey, ho, the wind and the rain… 'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, for the rain it raineth every day…" It wasn't until Charlie joined in that Alice realize she had started singing the song out loud. She found Hatter half turned in the saddle, staring back at her. Cheeks instantly flushed red, her mouth clamped shut, but Charlie kept on going, singing all the right words.

"How do you know that song?" Hatter asked, eyes intent on her blushing face.

"It's Shakespeare. He's a famous playwrite in my world," she explained.

"Oh yeah? That's interesting. Do you think he got it from Wonderland or Wonderland got it from him?" He mused, turning back to face front again. She shrugged, not even wanting to start thinking about things like that. She was too tired. So tired.

Alice's hands had started out lightly gripping the sides of Hatter's coat, her torso leaned slightly back from him as she sat up straight. It was a little awkward, being right up behind him like that. Not unpleasant, just awkward. This close, she could smell his cologne - or what she thought was cologne anyway - under the scent of leather from his jacket and the slight tang of sweat from the fight with Dodo and all the running. It was warm and deep and spicy; incredibly inviting. A big advantage to their proximity was his body heat. Her dress was pretty well dry now, but the chill of the lake still hung in her bones and she found herself leaning closer to him to take in some of his warmth. Her hands slid down his coat, bit by bit until they rested on his hips. The steady, rhythmic movement of the horse lulled her like a baby rocked in a cradle, Charlie's singing standing in as the soft lullaby.

Her eyelids grew heavy and, as she wasn't the one controlling the horse, she saw no reason to keep them open. As her last store of energy gave out, Alice slumped forward against Hatter's wonderfully solid and warm back. Her arms snaked around his waist and she yawned softly before exhaustion claimed her and she fell asleep, right there on the back of the horse, contentedly snuggled against a man she barely knew.