Sorry this one took longer than the others. My darling boyfriend came to visit me and I devoted all my time to him since I don't get to do that as often as I would like. I'm in the process of convincing him to wear porkpie hats hehe.
Chapter XXVIII: The Aftermath
Alice grimaced as the nurse at the Hospital of Dreams tightened the bandages wrapped around her midsection. They were to bind and cushion her ribs, four of which were fractured and two heavily bruised. The laceration she had received from the jabberwock pit two days before was almost completely healed. Unfortunately, it looked as if Alice was going to have yet another scar to add to her collection. Slayers were fast healers, but their skin scarred just as easily as a normal person's.
"Too tight?" the nurse asked.
Alice shook her head. She had been X-rayed and even had a CT scan at the urging of her father to assess the damage to her head after having it slammed into the pavement on the rooftop of the hospital. Luckily, there was no skull fracture, only a mild concussion. They cleaned the wound at the back of her scalp with some saline (or, rather, what she assumed to be saline) and applied some antiseptic ointment to it. They even gave her a full physical assessment just to make sure there was no brain damage. Her palms had been slathered with the same healing ointment as they had used on her scalp and then swathed in bandages. She had nearly forgotten about the abrasions on her palms, yet another souvenir from her confrontation with Mad March. As for the cut on her cheek, they had applied a butterfly bandage to bridge the flesh, though it had already begun to close on its own. They had trouble believing her when she had told them she had received the cut that very day.
All in all, she regarded the entire affair with bemusement. She and Hatter had both been extremely reluctant to return to the Hospital of Dreams. But her father insisted that she, Hatter, and Charlie should all receive medical attention. Evidently, the hospital part of the title did hold some truth, for not only did it serve as a sanctuary for those who had become addicted to oyster emotions, but it also had facilities for treating more traditional injuries and illnesses. As it turned out, Wonderland's medical facilities and protocol were eerily similar to those back in her world. In fact, some of their equipment seemed even more advanced. And yet they don't have the most basic of birth control devices? Really?
"So, can I go see how my friends are doing?" she inquired, failing to keep the impatience from her tone. Once they had arrived, she, Hatter, and Charlie had been immediately separated by a bevy of nurses and orderlies shoving wheelchairs at them. Word of their arrival had been sent ahead and the newly crowned King of Hearts had ordered that they were to be extremely well cared for.
"Alice, sweetheart, why don't you rest?" her father urged. He was sitting in a little black chair by the doorway holding an ice pack to his bruised neck.
"But I just want to make sure they're okay," Alice said, shooting her father a beseeching look. She knew there was more to Hatter's injuries than just the few "cuts and bruises" he had claimed. There had been a slightly appalling amount of blood coating the side of his face and neck. And Charlie had been knocked unconscious by a grenade blast. Even if he had appeared more or less unhurt, he could have received internal injuries.
"If you want, I can go find out for you, but your father is right. You should stay put for now," the nurse said kindly. She fluffed up Alice's pillow and then motioned for the girl to lie back. Alice sighed heavily and figured she may as well humor the well-meaning woman. Besides, these beds seemed to be about twice as comfortable as the hospital beds in her world.
You know you're a way too frequent hospital patient when you start critiquing and comparing the comfort level of the beds, she wryly thought to herself.
While the nurse left to go inquire after the well-being of Charlie and Hatter, Alice's father pulled his chair up next to the bed. A strange silence arose between father and daughter. It was almost as if, with the threat of imminent peril out of the way, they did not exactly know what to say to one another. Alice knew her father would eventually start pelting her with questions, questions she was not precisely certain on how to answer.
"So, um, the oysters will be all right at Diamond Manor?" Alice asked after some time. "Ugh, I have to stop calling them that. Stupid Wonderland lingo is rubbing off on me," she then added in a grumble.
"For the moment. It's the best we can do under the circumstances," her father replied, his tone weary and guilt-ridden. She knew he took a rather unfair share of the blame for the plight of her—their—people on his shoulders.
Diamond Manor was the ancestral estate belonging to the duchess, whom Alice had learned was Ilaena Diamond, last surviving heir to the Duchy of Diamonds. She had graciously offered up the place as a sanctuary for the oysters. The magnanimous act had taken everyone, Jack included, by surprise. But it had been necessary to find a haven to temporarily house the oysters, not so much for the sake of comfort but for the matter of their safety. Hatter had warned them about his former patrons. They were going to be experiencing some intense withdrawal and once word leaked out that there were unfettered oysters outside the confines of the casino, the situation could rapidly decline into outright chaos.
"Returning them back to their homes and families won't be an easy matter," her father continued in a subdued voice. "But I am determined to set things right."
Alice nodded in understanding. All those people had been abducted from different times and different places, and no one had thought to keep a record of such details. There had been no rhyme or reason, no pattern to their abductions as there apparently had been with her father. No contingency plan had ever been established in the event that the oysters were to be sent back to their world. No one had ever anticipated needing to send them back. She did not fully understand the dynamics of traveling between her world and Wonderland, but she had learned that, while there was only one Looking Glass on this side, there were many in her world. All of these portals were linked to this single, master Looking Glass.
"I guess this means you won't be coming home anytime soon?" Alice said dolefully.
Her father looked up at her, his hazel eyes tortured. "I'm afraid not, Jellybean. But, I promise, once I set things right here with the oysters and with the people here, I will come home," he assured her, reaching out to squeeze one of her bandaged hands.
Alice frowned. "It's going to take a long time for this kingdom to heal after what the Queen of Hearts did. Are you really gonna stick around until everything's all better?"
"Oh, no," her father said, shaking his head. "But I do want to help make the path a little…smoother. The patients here who have been consumed by oyster emotions are only the tip of the iceberg. I at least need to help establish better treatment methods. Please understand, sweetie," he implored, having noticed the crestfallen expression on Alice's face, "I created a lot of this mess. I have to do my part to clean it up."
Alice knew from firsthand experience that, with every victory, there was a huge mess to contend with in its wake. Wonderland had been stewing in a pot of misery for decades. Overthrowing the Queen of Hearts was just a start to unwinding the tangled thread of problems which entrapped this kingdom and its people. She could definitely say she did not envy Jack. He had a monumental undertaking as this kingdom's new ruler ahead of him.
"When did you want to return, Alice?" her father asked. There were more silent questions roving about in his eyes, but he did not ask them. Perhaps he was waiting to hear her answer to this one first.
This particular question made her heart ache, and the reason behind that ache was currently absent from the room. Her throat suddenly felt constricted and she swallowed to alleviate the feeling. "Um, I don't know. I suppose it'll have to be soon. I've been gone, what…three or four days now?" It was curiously hard to measure the length of time she had spent in Wonderland. So much had happened in such a short amount of time that her perception was skewed.
To her utter shock, her father started to chuckle. "Oh, don't worry about that, Jellybean. The Looking Glass functions in the dimension of time as well as space."
"Eh?" Alice asked in confusion.
"What I mean is, we can calibrate the Looking Glass's trajectory to send you back to the same day and relatively the same hour that you went through it in the first place," her father clarified.
It took a few moments to properly absorb the significance of those words. When it did, she cocked an eyebrow and just said, "Huh. Well that's good to know." Inside she was feeling somewhat duped, as she had spent a good deal of time worrying about how her prolonged absence was affecting her mother and her sister Slayers only to find that she had worried needlessly.
"You don't even want to know how that's possible?" her father asked with a raised eyebrow.
Alice shrugged. "I'm sure it has something to do with a bunch of words I won't understand. Physics and quantum mechanics type stuff…" or just magic.
"Of course, your body will still physically age," he warned her, possibly sensing she might contemplate spending an extended amount of time in Wonderland for various reasons.
"Of course," Alice repeated in a distracted manner.
"Alice," her father began, his voice sounding unsure, "does your mother know about…ehm…the things you're able to do?"
When she dared to meet her father's gaze, she found no reproach there, merely curiosity and concern. Still, a sense of guilt speared her nonetheless. Even her own Slayer brethren thought it odd she kept her job secret from her mother. "No," she finally admitted.
Her father studied her quietly for a few moments before speaking again. "I don't suppose you want to tell me, then, do you?"
Again, there was no accusation or even the slightest bit of demanding to his tone. The quiet, level manner in which he posed his questions cut to the quick though. She had told Hatter the truth even when she had not known him for a full day. Of course, there had been some extenuating circumstances leading up to that confession. Still, this was her father, even if she had not seen him in eleven years. She felt like she owed him the truth. And if I owe him the truth, I definitely owe Mom the truth…fuck me.
"It's not that," she said quietly. "There's just a lot more to it than the fact that I have super strength and all that."
The nurse who had left earlier to find out how Charlie and Hatter were doing returned at that moment, temporarily suspending the conversation. The woman smiled brightly at Alice, which made the girl's heart leap. Surely she would not be smiling if the news was bad. "Your friends are fine, Miss Hamilton. Mr. Hatter had some minor cuts, bruises, and burns, but they patched him up. As for your knight friend…"
Alice's eyes widened in horror and she interrupted the nurse, "Wait, wait, Hatter had some burns? How in the hell did he get burns?"
The nurse just shook her head. "I don't know, Ma'am, but they're minor, I assure you."
"Dad," Alice said, noticing her father's uncomfortable expression, "how did he get the burns?"
Robert sighed. "The Tweedles were using a device that looked like an electric cattle prod when I found him," he informed her somberly.
Alice clenched her fist, ignoring the sting which arose. "Those sons of bitches," she fumed.
"They're dead," her father said. "Both of them. So, don't worry about it. He's fine."
That did little to appease the irate Slayer, who was filled with rage and guilt that such a thing had befallen her companion. As if she did not feel guilty enough for everything she had cost Hatter, he had been tortured all because he had tried to rescue her from the clutches of the Suits. If he had only stayed behind in the Kingdom of the Knights, he would never have had to suffer so. But then you may have never toppled the house of cards, literally and figuratively, a voice reminded her. She was forced to concede that, without Hatter, she would never have been able to do what she had done back at the casino. He had given her the strength she needed to carry out the grim task of taking down the Queen of Hearts and freeing the oysters.
The nurse fussed over Alice after seeing how distressed she was over learning of Hatter's burns. In an effort to cheer her up, she told the girl about how Charlie had received only a mild concussion and some bruises. Apparently Charlie and Hatter were also sharing the same hospital room for the night, which did make Alice chuckle a little.
How desperately she wanted to see Hatter. He had been out of her sight for little more than an hour and she was already missing him intensely. Just thinking about him made her body burn fiercely, but in a very pleasant way. How odd that he could incite such contradicting reactions from her ranging from a peaceful sense of calm to a raging, passionate inferno. But thinking of him and how much she ached to be near him also forced her to confront the troubling notion of returning home and leaving him behind. Her heart twisted in agony at the thought of being without him. Even her stomach felt queasy at the notion. How was she going to go through with it? But I can't stay here. I just don't belong here…Mom, all my friends, my job…I can't just abandon those.
Tears sprang to her eyes and she hastily turned away from her father in an attempt to hide them.
"Alice, honey, what's wrong?" Robert asked in concern.
She tried to quell the sobs which sent tremors through her body. "Nothing," she choked out completely unconvincingly.
"Hatter is going to be fine," her father said, mistaking the young man's injuries as the cause of her sudden onrush of tears.
"I know," she stammered, wiping at her eyes. But I don't know if I will be.
Her father's hands hovered around her, his fingers close to her shoulders but not quite touching them. He appeared uncertain as to whether or not he should try to hug her. Alice wondered if it was the years of separation and memory loss which prompted the uncertainty or the uncanny abilities she had demonstrated. She hoped for the former. She feared it was the latter.
"If I understand correctly, this boy was the proprietor of the queen's most profitable tea outlet. And, yet, he was also a Resistance member?" Robert questioned her.
That was information Alice was almost certain her father already knew. Why he was questioning her about it was somewhat mystifying. "Yeah, he ran the Tea House. And he also smuggled food, information, and supplies to refugees and Resistance fighters," she explained.
Her father pressed his fingertips together in front of his face, his brow crinkling as he descended into deep thought. "How did you two meet?"
Alice blinked. "When I first got here to Wonderland. Some random guy dressed up in a slicker brought me to him," she recounted.
"And that was a few days ago?"
"Um…yeah," Alice said slowly, her eyes narrowing.
Robert was quiet for a moment, stroking his beard pensively. "You two seem rather…ahem…close for having met such a short time ago," he commented mildly. No doubt the rather intimate embrace and passionate kiss the two had shared was on his mind. Alice felt her cheeks grow warm.
The girl shifted uncomfortably, not particularly caring for the direction their conversation appeared to be headed. "Yeah, well, we've been through a lot in that short amount of time."
Her father nodded. "Oh, yes, I know that. He seems to care about you an awful lot. In fact…" his sentence cut off, a troubled expression bringing deeper creases to the man's already furrowed brow.
After a beat, Alice grew impatient. "In fact what?"
When her father looked up at her, there was a strange, conflicted gleam to his hazel eyes. "Jellybean, what are your feelings for this young man?"
The question completely took her aback. On a subliminal level she had known she would have to answer for the kiss she had shared with Hatter right before her father's eyes. But so many other matters had taken precedence that the issue had just been pushed aside. And, how, exactly, could she answer that question? There appeared to be no words adequate enough to encompass what she felt for Hatter. Certainly there appeared to be none to justify how she had developed such strong feelings in the span of only a few days. Wonderland time did not have the same feel to it as the flow of time in her world even though the physical passage of time appeared more or less the same.
"I…I never would have made it this far without him," she said softly. "He took a bullet for me; he protected me and helped me at the risk of his life and reputation. He rescued me from the Tweedles and then tried to save me again when we got captured by Mad March. He's stood by me through everything even when I don't think I particularly deserved it. He's been the truest friend I've ever had…"
Her father held up a hand to interrupt her. "Yes, he has done extraordinary things and I am very grateful to him for all that he's done for you. But that does not answer my question." His tone was not stern, not quite, but there was an implacable ring to it.
Alice looked down at her bandaged hands, thinking back on how Mad March's veiled threats towards Hatter had incited such a fierce protective rage in her. She would easily have let Mad March kill her before she would have let that bastard harm him. Her heart thumped wildly as she gazed up at her father, her blue eyes sparkling with wetness and her voice filled with wonder. "I'm in love with him, Daddy," she admitted, shaking her head.
Saying it aloud as if giving it substance and form lifted some strange weight off her soul. It was a fact she had been hanging onto for a while, but had been too afraid to acknowledge. It flew in the face of everything she had experienced with the opposite sex in the past. She had never been in love before. It was something she had very nearly scoffed at, though that was likely just a shoddy defense mechanism to mask how much she wished for such a thing to happen. But she had always held back, walling off her precious heart in a parade of short-lived relationships.
But Hatter had somehow slipped through all those long-held defenses, chipped away at her self-imposed armor. She had even tried to run from it. That night she had decided to make her own way to the casino under the slumbering noses of Charlie and Hatter, she not just been running towards something. Alice had been running away from her growing feelings for the teashop owner. They had scared her, unnerved her with their intensity. Logic railed against it, but since when had the heart ever cared about logic? Buffy, the commander of the Slayers, had fallen for two vampires, which was certainly one of the most illogical things in the history of illogical things.
Well, at least Hatter has a pulse, she found herself thinking.
Yes, Alice had run from those feelings, but that had failed to stem the tide. Besides, Hatter ran after her. No man had ever done that for her before.
"I love him," she repeated, more to herself than to her father. Her voice was filled with bemused conviction.
Robert regarded her with a crooked smile. "I figured as much."
At length, her father finally retired to his own bed, leaving Alice alone in the small hospital room. Pale beams of moonlight streamed from the bedside window. She gazed out the window, her eyes tilting up to the gibbous moon. Even though she was in a different world where there were no vampires and even though she was thoroughly wrung out with exhaustion and pain, there was still an instinctive thrumming in her blood, calling out for her to go into the night and hunt. This was the time when vampires and other supernatural creatures were at their most active, and so it was the time when Slayers had to be most active.
She knew she needed to sleep. Her body, as strong and preternaturally gifted as it was, still required adequate rest to heal itself. Alice drew the thick cotton blanket over body, easing herself down into the mattress without jostling her injured ribs. The doctor had offered the Wonderland equivalent to morphine, but when she told him he would have to administer at least twice the normal dose for a woman of her size and weight, he had looked at her as if she had grown two heads. Being too tired to argue the point, she had simply waved him off. Besides, the pain was tolerable.
Her head jerked up from the pillow when she heard a voice in the corridor outside her room. Though the door was closed and the voice was muffled, it was loud enough that she could understand perfectly. "Oi! I'm a friend, okay! I just wanted to see if she was all right. Bloody hell, you can put the gun away, mate!"
Alice's lips curled into a smile when she recognized Hatter's voice. He must have come across the Suit who had been assigned by Jack to be her bodyguard during her stay in the Hospital of Dreams. She did not know what the man thought of being forced to protect the woman who had single-handedly put a few of his comrades in hospital beds, but she could bet he did not appreciate the irony as much as she did.
She gingerly slipped off the bed and padded over to open the door. Both men turned at the sound and backed away from one another. The Suit's features smoothed into the typical granite-faced expression that she had come to associate with those men. Hatter's features lightened into a relieved smile upon seeing her.
"It's okay," she assured the Suit. "He can come in."
The Suit said nothing, but merely re-holstered his firearm and stepped back to resume his sentry position against the wall next to the door. Hatter sauntered up to the open door, throwing a triumphant smirk at the Suit before entering the room.
"We didn't get one of those," the young man noted with a raised eyebrow as Alice shut the door behind him.
Alice rolled her eyes. "Jack apparently insisted since I'm an oyster in a hospital full of people who got themselves hooked on oyster emotions. Precaution and all." She shrugged.
She reached out to flip on the lights. The fluorescent illumination startled her dark-accustomed eyes, but it enabled her to get a better look at Hatter. She wanted to truly see for herself that he was all right. The blood had been cleaned from his face and neck and butterfly bandages adorned a few of the cuts on his cheek and forehead. A nasty bruise on his left cheekbone was an angry shade of purple and maroon. She knew there was a similar, even more severe bruise probably afflicting his upper left pectoral muscle, just under his collarbone. That was where the bullet had struck the body armor that day down in the Great Library. His silk paisley shirt and leather jacket concealed that bruise from view, along with the burns she had not even known he had suffered.
She glided towards him, reaching up to lightly trace every single bruise and cut on his face. "I'm so sorry," she whispered.
His hand wrapped around hers, pulling it down to his lips to bestow light kisses on the fingertips. "Don't be," he told her. "I'm not." He frowned at the bandages wrapping both her hands.
"I had a lot of skin ripped off the palms during my fun confrontation with Mad March on the rooftop here," she supplied.
Hatter hissed angrily. "I really wish killing him would have been a bit more painful…for him, of course." His dark brown eyes then drifted down towards her torso. "And your ribs? Not puncturing any vital organs, or anything?"
Alice snorted. "Well, if that had happened, I'm pretty sure I'd be sedated and in post-operative care at the moment. But, no, just four cracked ones and two bruised ones. They'll be mostly healed up by tomorrow evening."
"Ah, yes, you Slayer types heal up fast," Hatter remarked, his eyes restlessly traveling over her form, still clad in the Diamond dress. It reminded her that one of the first items on her agenda for the next day was to find that Diamond whom she had traded outfits with and get her own clothes back. She did kind of miss the velvet jacket Hatter had loaned her.
"Yeah," she replied, almost breathless at the way in which his chocolate eyes held her captive. "Kind of a necessity in our line of work."
His expression darkened for a brief instance at that comment. But then he drew her close, gently loping his arms around her and resting his chin on the crown of her head. It was almost as if the rest of the world was slowly dropping away into the distance, leaving nothing but Alice wrapped up in Hatter's embrace. She breathed his scent in, letting out a pleasant sigh.
"Sometimes I think this is all a dream," Hatter finally murmured, his breath tickling wisps of hair at the top of her head. "I've been too afraid to try to sleep, almost. I'm worried that when I wake up, you'll be gone and I'll be back in the casino."
Alice, who was caught up in thinking she was comfortable enough to fall asleep standing up, barely heard the comment. But she could sympathize. Everything that had happened seemed like a whirlwind of impossibilities. It was difficult for her to believe, at times, that this was all not some kind of fantastical dream. But here Hatter was before her, as real and solid as anything. Her heart surged jubilantly in his presence. If it was only a dream, she would be only too happy to never wake up.
"I know what you mean," she said quietly.
His hands drifted down her back, carefully grazing over her battered ribcage. Though there was a layer of fabric and bandages separating her bare skin from his fingers, she felt a trail of heat follow in his wake. In spite of the exhaustion gripping her body, that heat filled her to the core.
"So, ehm, I'm sharing a room with Charlie," Hatter announced.
Alice glanced up at him, noting the mischievous twinkle in those dark brown eyes. His fingers, meanwhile, were tracing circles on the small of her back right at the very crest of her bottom. The caresses were sending delightful shivers up her spine. "Yes, I heard. How's that going for you?"
The young man rolled his eyes. "I'm not entirely convinced Jack didn't purposely see to the room arrangements himself. That old knight has been singing and chatting in his sleep ever since he nodded off a few hours ago. It's driving me mad."
Alice tried to suppress the giggle which bubbled up her throat, but it came out anyway. Hatter's response was to slide his hands down her backside, gripping the backs of her thighs and lifting her up off her feet. Her womb practically quivered in anticipation and her brain buzzed with an onslaught of chemicals. A few steps to the bed and Alice was promptly, but tenderly, deposited on the mattress, her legs instinctively winding around Hatter's hips.
"I wouldn't laugh if I were you, Miss Hamilton. You see, I find myself in need of different sleeping accommodations," Hatter informed her, trying his best to sound stern and serious.
"Oh, really?" Alice replied huskily. She gasped when his hands started lazily stroking a path up her skirt. How was it possible he could arouse her so easily and quickly when her body had endured such abuses? Moreover, he had to be as exhausted as she was, but that did not appear to deter his libido in the slightest. From the position she was in, she could feel his arousal up against her inner thigh and it initiated a very distinct pulsing sensation between her legs. Oh, not good. We have to stop. Oh, dear god, what is he doing with that hand?
"Mm hmm," he said, his eyes boring into hers, darkened with lust and love. His hands were coming dangerously close to the thin barrier of her panty line, little more than satin and lace. She wished he would just slip his fingers under the panties and slake part of the driving urge awakening within her. She wanted his fingers—(well, honestly, she wanted a different part of his anatomy)—to slide up within her aching, slick core. But, the part of her mind that was still capable of lucid thought, reminded her that if he were to do such a thing, he would light a fire which would not be easily doused. And they still had no form of protection. Not to mention they were in a hospital room with a man standing right outside the door and her father in the adjoining room next to them. Not exactly the best environment for consummation. Not to mention you have some broken ribs which might make lovemaking a little…uncomfortable.
"Oh, Hatter, you have to stop," she moaned reluctantly. His fingers had begun to trace along the edge of her panties, grazing over the juncture of thigh and groin.
"I know," he mumbled, equally reluctant. "It's just so hard."
"Well, yes, I can feel that," she replied deviously.
Hatter smirked at her. "You are a bad girl, Alice." He slowly slid his hands out from under her skirt, but they still remained on her bare thighs.
"Hey, I'm not the one that started this foreplay," she retorted.
He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Oh yeah you did," he told her saucily.
"How so?"
"By dressing up in that skimpy little outfit," he pointed out with a smarmy smirk plastered on his face. "Though, I must say, I do miss the blue dress, especially when it's very wet."
Alice just laughed and shook her head, leaning forward to plant a kiss on Hatter's lips.
"So, you'll be mostly healed up tomorrow, eh?" he asked mildly. His implication behind that innocently posed question was not missed.
"Yes, I will be," Alice replied. Her eyes flitted down to his chest where his jacket and shirt hid his burns from view.
"Oh, well, I just have some cuts and bruises. Nothing so fancy as broken ribs and brain damage," Hatter said dismissively.
"Cuts and bruises and…burns, apparently," she pointed out sharply. Hatter shifted guiltily. Then she realized what else he had said about her. "Hey! I do not have brain damage! The doctor said so." She crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes narrowed.
"I don't know. Seems to me it takes a fair amount of brain damage to pull off some of the crazy stunts you did," he remarked dryly, his eyes dancing with humor.
Alice laughed and rolled her eyes. "Well that's a little pot calling the kettle black, don't you think? I oughta to smack you for riding in on Guinevere swinging that sword around and nearly getting yourself killed." She shuddered at the memory of Hatter being pulled from the horse. She had been terrified the Suits or Mad March would have killed him right then and there. So she had thrown herself into the fray without hesitation, which, ironically, had nearly gotten her killed.
Hatter brushed away a few errant strands of dark hair which had fallen in front of her eyes. He regarded her with silent tenderness before saying in a voice roughened by emotion, "I never said I didn't have some kind of brain damage."
There was so much Alice wanted to say, but some nameless fear held her tongue. It kept her from spilling out the depth of her feelings to this man. If she brought up that particular subject, it would inevitably lead to far less pleasant subjects. Lying unspoken between them was the knowledge that she would have to leave Wonderland at some point. She wanted to postpone that conversation for as long as possible. All she wanted now was to bask in Hatter's presence without worrying about someone or something trying to kill them.
"You still need a place to sleep?" she asked.
Hatter fervently nodded his head. "Yes. Happen to know where I might find one?" His dark brown eyes flitted just behind her, centering on her own bed.
She smirked. "Well, there might be a spare bed in my dad's room," she teased.
"Oh, you're a laugh riot, you are," he mumbled.
Alice snickered as she regretfully unhooked her legs from around Hatter's waist and made room for him on the bed. Hatter kicked off his shoes and took off his jacket. The hospital bed was narrow, much smaller compared to that old bed in the barn back at the Kingdom of the Knights. But it mattered not for these two. Their bodies molded together seamlessly underneath the cotton blanket. The pain of her various injuries seemed to miraculously dull with Hatter curled up against her back. The warmth of his body seeped into hers and she felt the tension slowly drain from sore muscles.
"So, is this like a normal day at the office for you?" Hatter asked after a while. His hand was moving in soft strokes up and down her arm.
Alice smiled drowsily. "Well, normally, I don't have much to do with revolutions and overthrowing a government. It's usually a straightforward: find evil creatures, kill evil creatures, and then take a nice hot bubble bath."
Though she could not see his face, she could imagine the intrigue lighting up in his eyes. "I don't see how this situation does not merit a bubble bath," he remarked.
She laughed softly before letting out a protracted yawn. "You were amazing today, by the way. I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without you," she commented, rolling over slightly so she could face him.
Hatter scoffed. "Oh yes, I was brilliant, I was. Barging in swinging around a weapon I don't even know how to use like some half-wit. And I don't think we need reminding about how incredibly ineffective that rescue attempt was," he griped in self-deprecation.
"Well, when you think about it, your intent was to get me out of the clutches of the Suits. And, well, it worked, didn't it?" she pointed out.
Hatter frowned as he mulled that point over. "Well, how about you not fall off a cliff and scare me to death next time you need rescuing?"
Alice nodded tiredly, her eyes flickering open and shut. Whereas sleep had been elusive before, it was now starting to gain more ground. The girl snuggled up closer to Hatter, pressing her face into the softness of his silk shirt.
"I don't like that subject, anyway. Can we talk about the prospect of bubble baths, now?" Hatter inquired roguishly. "Alice?"
Alice did not answer, for she was already fast asleep and lost amidst a swirl of dreams.
She had somehow ended up back in the Tulgey Wood. Alice blinked in surprise at her decidedly more arboreal surroundings, not overly alarmed by her change of location, but still rather confused. Thick trunks wound up from the forest floor and towered above the petite Slayer, their verdant leaves swaying in the gentle breeze. The gibbous moon peaked through the thick canopy of boughs, its illumination taking on a slight purple-red tinge. Odd, I don't remember how I got here.
"That's because you aren't really here," a disembodied voice drawled. It carried no flavor of masculine or feminine, thus making it unmistakable just who (or what) it belonged to.
"Oh, joy," Alice muttered in exasperation. "You again." She looked up towards the tree line and then all around her. There was no sign of the mystical and somewhat annoying feline. That was not altogether surprising. She had learned that this particular entity would show itself if and when it wished. "So, cutting into my dreams now, are we?"
She sensed more than heard the Cheshire materialize, no doubt floating in the air as was its wont. Turning towards her left, there was indeed the shape of a purple cat with vivid blue stripes and iridescent blue-green eyes hovering in mid-air. "Ah, yes, your psyche apparently had some rather naughty scenarios planned for the night, which I apologize for interrupting, but I desired an audience," it said, grinning widely.
Alice clenched her fists, feeling her cheeks warm with the heat of anger and mortification driven together. Was that thing seriously telling her it had knowingly disrupted a sex dream? She did not even remember having a sex dream for it to interrupt!
The Cheshire cackled in its maddeningly obnoxious manner. "I'm joking, Alice. Really, my dear, take some of Hatter's advice and lighten up!"
She huffed in aggravation. "What do you want, then? Don't tell me you have some other task or quest for me. Hatter told me what happens to those you apparently dump those things on and I'm not looking to push my luck."
The being waved a fat, purple paw in a dismissive manner, scoffing at the comment. "Oh, no, nothing of the sort, but, in all honesty, your boy was being a bit over-dramatic. I just wanted to congratulate you on your success. You did very well in bringing down the Queen of Hearts. Wonderland was sick for a very long time under her reign. Now, with her gone, it can heal and return to its former glory."
Alice cocked her head to the side, her brow raised in skepticism. "That's it? You infiltrated my dreams just to give me a pat on the back?"
The cat-god-thing stared at her, its eyes so bright in the darkness of the forest it was nearly physically painful to look upon them. "Mostly, yes," it said noncommittally. "Among other things."
Alice sighed. "Other things, of course," she repeated. "What was in it for you, anyway? I mean, why does it matter who is in power to you?"
The Cheshire dropped to the ground, its claws extending from its forepaws to knead at the grassy ground. "The queen subverted the natural order by bringing people from your world here and pumping their emotions into Wonderlanders. The realm was not in balance and balance, little Slayer, is of the utmost import. And, as I told you, I have rules of my own to abide by. I can do very little to affect mortal affairs directly. I must depend on others, such as yourself, to shake things up."
"Shake things up" was putting it lightly, in Alice's opinion, but she supposed she could see the Cheshire's point. As a Slayer, she was already an instrument of higher powers, acting to counter the imbalance posed by the creation of vampires. That did not mean she liked being used in the schemes of gods, and it was beginning to sound more and more like that was what had occurred.
"You were here for a reason, Alice. And you fulfilled that reason," the Cheshire told her, its tone uncharacteristically somber. "You have reunited with your long-lost father and freed your people from a fate which, on some levels, would have been worse than death." The being nuzzled its wet snout against her bare legs, purring loudly. It was very surreal to see it act in the capacity of a normal, domesticated cat. She only hoped it would not start licking its crotch again.
"Yes, which means I can go home, right? I mean, you weren't planning on me sticking around for the clean-up, were you?" she asked hesitantly.
The Cheshire tilted its feline head up to peer at her, its eyes boring straight to her very soul. "No, that task lies with others. But you are welcome to stay in Wonderland if that is your wish."
She had not known she would need the Cheshire's permission to stay in Wonderland and she appreciated the offer. But she could not stay here. As beautiful and enchanting as some of Wonderland had been, this was just not her home, not her world. Her mother, her friends, and her job awaited her back on Earth. But that still left her with the dilemma over what to do about Hatter and what lay between them. It would be no simple matter to just leave him behind. She was sharing her bed with him for the second time and she had indulged in what was definitely borderline R-rated foreplay. If she was just going to leave within a few days' time, would it not make more sense to cut things off at friendship? It was not fair to either of them to carry on in the way they had been doing. All she could foresee was heartbreak. Heartbreak she did not think she could recover from.
"Oh, poor girl, I will tell you that the whole falling in love part was definitely your own doing. You and that boy. I had nothing to do with that," the Cheshire cut in, sounding somewhat defensive.
Alice sighed in chagrin. The Cheshire's ability to effortlessly see into her thoughts had completely slipped her mind.
"Those were some of the other things I wanted to discuss. As a favor to you, my dear, I will impart some wisdom as only infinitely wise beings such as myself can give," it said, puffing out its chest with self-importance.
"Oh, so you're an expert on dating now, are you?" Alice sniped in ill humor. "So, what, are we supposed to try to keep up a…trans-dimensional relationship? I just really don't think that'll work. Especially not with my job." She turned away from the being, overcome with the need to weep out her dismay and frustration over life's many injustices.
"First off," the Cheshire said in a mildly reproving voice, "start with actually discussing the matter with him. For, I assure you, it has been weighing on his mind as much as it has weighed on yours. It grieves him more than you'll know. Secondly, have either of you even admitted how you feel? Truly admitted it?"
Alice shook her head. "Not with…words." It was easy to throw around the term "I love you". She remembered how Jack had said it to her back at the Hospital of Dreams when he had taken her to meet Caterpillar. He had spoken it as if he had been ordering a sandwich at the deli. And he certainly had not done much in showing how much he loved her. But Hatter, she realized, had basically worn the emotion on his sleeve in every action towards her for the past two days.
"True," the Cheshire acceded. "Actions do speak louder than words, but that does not diminish the importance of the words."
"Okay," Alice said, throwing her hands in the air. "I'll tell him, but that does not solve the problem of me having to go back home."
The Cheshire disappeared and then reappeared upon Alice's shoulders, its purrs rumbling through its fat body and its tail once again loping around her neck. "I'm afraid that is up to you two to solve, but you've both proven to be of more than adequate intelligence for mortals. I'm sure you'll think of something."
"Thanks," Alice mumbled, "I think."
"You're welcome," the being replied brightly.
The Cheshire leapt off her shoulders to land lightly upon the ground and daintily licked at one of its large purple forepaws. Alice just shook her head in exasperation at this being which insisted on behaving like a cat when she knew it was anything but. Even in this dream world, her Slayer senses were as keen as ever. She could feel the power roiling off of this being in waves.
"What are you anyway?" she asked. In her mind, she saw the Cheshire as some kind of a god. Hatter had not really confirmed for her whether or not she was right.
The creature did not answer for a very long time, merely continuing to lick its paws and then moving onto its face. She had about given up on receiving an answer from the capricious being until it turned its blue-green gaze onto her. Its mouth stretched out into a wide, toothy grin and it levitated into the air before her. "I'm the Cheshire," it said simply before disappearing in a cloud of purple smoke.
Ah, I just love having this creature mess with Alice. It's so much fun.
Don't worry. Alice isn't off the hook with explaining certain things to her father. Still a few more chapters to go before we can call this finished, so stay tuned, my dear readers!
I welcome all kinds of feedback!