Well, here it is: the last official chapter. Just an epilogue to follow and then this story shall be complete. Many thanks to my readers and reviewers for all their wonderful encouragement and support! I especially want to thank Alaina Downs for letting me bounce ideas off of her.

I will gladly accept any and all suggestions or ideas for the sequel since the format will be radically different from this story. I'm modeling it after the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel television series with small stories and subplots (a.k.a. "episodes") being woven into a wider tapestry. If there are canon characters from the original shows you want to see, or any ideas for conflicts/big bads, etc…just PM me or email me through the link in my profile. I will welcome them all and if I make use of them I will give full credit to whoever put forth the idea/ideas, I promise!

I already gave you a few glimpses into who some of the regular canon characters will be for the sequel and I give you some more in this chapter. See if you can pick them out ;)

Chapter XXXV: A Merry, Mad World, Part 2

Droplets of wine and shards of glass scattered across the linoleum. One of the shards sliced a small crimson path through the side of Alice's bare leg. She winced, but otherwise ignored the small injury. It was her mother she was concerned about. The woman seemed frozen in place, her hand poised as if it still gripped the wine glass. Her cheeks, which had been developing a slight rosy glow due to the alcohol, drained of all color. As expected, she stared at her as if she had just sprouted a limb out of her forehead.

Alice struck down the urge to wave her hand in front of her mother's face. "Mom?"

Finally, the woman blinked, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, honey, I don't think I heard you correctly…did you just say you were a…" there was a long pause, as if Carol had to force the words out, "a Vampire Slayer?"

"You do know what vampires are, right? See, we don't have them in my world so Alice had to explain them to me," Hatter mildly interjected.

"Yes, of course I know what they are," Carol sputtered, her tone sounding somewhat indignant. Her blue eyes swiveled over to Alice and the girl felt her face redden under the intensity of the gaze. "But they aren't…" her lips quivered and bulged out. She brought a hand up to her mouth and just shook her head. Her eyes fluttered shut.

Guilt speared through Alice. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, Mom. It was…" She could not, try as she might, summon a reason to justify her silence on the matter. Oh, there were reasons. But she was beginning to see those reasons for what they truly were: selfish. It had seemed like too onerous of a task. She had not wanted her mother to see her in a different light or to always worry about her. She had fooled herself into believing it had been for her mother's own protection when she had truly been doing it just to make things easier on herself. In reality, there was no excuse for omitting the truth for the past six years. Perpetual ignorance had placed her mother in a lot danger. The girl's gut twisted horribly at the thought.

Carol abruptly stood, sending her chair sliding back a few feet. She snatched up the broom and dust pan from where they rested next to the trash can and began vigorously sweeping up the broken glass and smearing the wine all over the floor. Her movements were tight, controlled. Alice could practically see the muscles in her arms bunching up with tension. The mundane task became a refuge, absorbing her with its familiar logic. She could understand the appeal.

Hatter sent her a sidelong glance full of concerned questions. She just shrugged. In retrospect, it had been considerably easier confessing the story to him. Having been brought up in a different world where magic was common knowledge if not actively used, he did not have the pre-conceptions her mother had. There had been no entrenched belief that vampires were mere figments of ancient folktales and legends to overcome. Accepting their existence had been no difficult feat for him. It was going to be a different matter altogether for her mother. What she was about to tell her mother would defy a lifetime's worth of accepted beliefs and "facts". People in general tended to violently resist accepting truths which did not fit with their meticulously constructed worldviews. But not all hope was lost. Her mother was quite open-minded and progressive. Alice was just going to be testing the limits of that open-mindedness.

"Mom, listen to me, please," Alice implored. "Just listen."

The woman halted in her task, but her entire frame trembled. She turned to face Hatter and Alice, who remained seated at the table, warily watching her. There was a stern gleam in her eyes, at war with the spark of fear and haunting suspicion. What the suspicion entailed, Alice did not know. Perhaps Carol was simply afraid her daughter may have lost her mind. But, then again, perhaps she was also afraid the story might ring with truth. Living atop the mouth of hell for nearly two decades had to have implanted some seeds of suspicion, though the peculiarly human trait to rationalize away the uncanny would have posed a strong counter force. Those seeds, those little whispers of wonder and instinct, were the ticket. Alice would have to feed them, make them grow and bloom. She would have to transform those subconscious suspicions into conscious realization.

She quelled the instinctual rising of trepidation and cleared her throat. "Six years ago, when I went away for a long time," she began in a quavering voice. Remorse and horror over those memories swirled within her, clogging up her throat. Her mother was likewise afflicted. The woman backed into the counter, gripping the edge so tightly her knuckles turned white.

She swallowed thickly and, with Hatter's gentle, reassuring squeeze on her hand, continued. "It wasn't me acting out in angsty teenage rebellion or some stupid quest to find Dad. You see, I never told you what happened a few days before that. I was attacked on my way home from judo class." In a calm, collected voice, she recited the account of that fateful day's events. Gradually, her mother released her grip on the counter and slid back into her chair at the table. Her tense features slackened into a mask of entrancement as she listened to the story.

Hesitation gripped her as she recounted her time in Sunnydale. There were parts of that story she intentionally glossed over or skipped altogether. Her mother was going to have enough mental and emotional upheavals to absorb without also having to contend with the notion that young girls had died horribly gruesome deaths at the hands of the servants of the First Evil. She also remained vague on the details of the gory final battle against the Turok-Han vampires in which she herself had received a severe abdominal wound. The urge to keep her mother protected from the morbid truth of reality was still difficult to defy.

Tears welled up in her mother's eyes. Her hands fluttered up to cover her mouth once more. They then enclosed over her entire face and Carol bowed her head, her chest heaving with sobs. Alice's heart clenched with pain and guilt at seeing her mother's emotional distress. But she had to wonder what it meant. She had expected her mother to be railing at her now, perhaps demanding she been seen by a psychiatrist.

"I'm so sorry, Mom. I was so scared in Sunnydale almost all the time. I never thought I would see you again and there were times when I just wanted to run away. And I didn't think you would understand. I thought you would just call me crazy or just be really angry with me…well, you kind of were anyway," she said, smiling sadly, "which I sort of deserved."

Carol sucked in a deep breath through her hands and lifted her face up. Her red-rimmed blue eyes, the very color she had passed onto her daughter, gazed out with agonized intensity.

"You put me through hell those months, Alice," she softly declared, her voice permeated with pain.

"I know," Alice replied in remorse. "And I am really sorry about that. But there were things going on that were bigger than you and me. I had to go, Mom. If I had stayed, I was risking both your life and my life. I escaped from the Bringers once and I didn't want to take the chance that I could do it again, especially since I was terrified they might do something to you, too."

Carol shook her head. Alice could tell she was trying to resist. This was not a thing any parent wanted to hear. But those seeds of doubt were sprouting, rooting themselves into her psyche. Alice was providing the pieces to a puzzle her mother had likely never consciously acknowledged, but one that had been plaguing the fringes of her mind nonetheless.

"No," her mother declared. But the conviction in her voice was feeble. Those seeds of doubt and suspicion were subverting the denial. Alice did not know whether to cheer or despair at that.

"No, no, no," Carol repeated. Her chest heaved again, a sob clawing its way up her throat.

Alice steeled herself against her mother's distress. Would it have been like this if she had been upfront with her mother from the start? Perhaps it would have been wiser to tell her mother the truth upon returning from Sunnydale. But there was no changing the choice she had made. All she could do now was move forward and hope she could atone for the pain she had and would cause her beloved mother.

"Think about where we live, Mom. There is a reason Cleveland has such a horrific reputation. Although you probably haven't noticed, but the all those weird occurrences and mysterious deaths and disappearance have declined in the past six years." She caught Hatter's wisp of a proud smile and felt a small flood of warmth over that. She was grateful he was here, lending her his love and support. It made this distasteful task much more tolerable.

"Because of you," Carol stated in a flat tone.

Alice shook her head. "Not just me. We established a base here. There are lots of other girls who live and fight here. And we have allies; those who aren't Vampire Slayers that help us fight against evil."

This elicited a huff of disbelief from her mother. She started to shake her head again. The girl understood the urge to hang onto denial. Familiarity and logic bred comfort, and being thrown into something so completely foreign and incomprehensible was always frightening.

But the wheels were turning. Her mother was fiercely intelligent, much like her father. She could practically see the synapses firing in her brain, making connections and filling in gaps of knowledge. The fine skin of her forehead wrinkled. "Those friends that you're always with…they are…" she swallowed, patting her throat, "like you?"

"Not all of them. But, most of them, yes," answered Alice.

Her mother took a few moments to process this. Her hands were pressed up alongside her nose, the fingertips pressing into the inner ridges of her eyes. She tilted her head up to the ceiling, pulled her hands away to run them through her hair, and drew in some deep breaths. Alice and Hatter waited patiently in silence.

"So, you've been doing this ever since…you were in high school?" Carol asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Alice nodded. "I became more involved after graduating, but, yes, I've been doing it for six years now."

A sound came from Carol, somewhere between a sob and a gasp. She then violently shook her head. "No," she stated. "No, I don't accept that, Alice." The wetness overflowed and a few tears rolled down her cheek.

Alice inclined her head. Though guilt and sympathy were raging within her, she forced herself to remain tranquil in the face of it. "That's your choice, Mom. But it's the truth, no matter if you accept it or not. I kill vampires and demons for a living."

Her mother's eyes narrowed. "You get paid for it?"

She nodded. "Quite a lot, actually. Slayers didn't used to get paid, but that was back when there was only one at a time. We changed the rules." She quirked an eyebrow. "What, did you think I made a lot from being a martial arts instructor?"

"No, I just thought…you were really good at budgeting," her mother replied with a weak shrug.

Alice let out a sardonic snort. "I'm not too bad at it, but I'm not that good. Do you want me to pull up my bank accounts as proof I'm not making this up?" As soon as she put forth the suggestion, she regretted it. There were other reasons for a sizable bank account; reasons which might shed doubt on legality. She did not want her mother to think she was some kind of criminal.

"Show her," Hatter advised. "Show her what you can do."

Alice considered this. There was absolutely no way she was going to take her mother out into the night and slay a vampire in front of her. That was far too risky and she had had more than enough shocks for the night. Seeing a body explode into dust could be a traumatizing experience. Her other unique abilities such as her accelerated healing and enhanced stamina were not particularly self-evident for this type of situation. That left only one option: her strength. But even that had its obstacles. Alice had spent years training in the martial arts. So her mother would already expect her to be at least slightly stronger and more athletic than an average young woman of her age. It would take an impressive demonstration to show that her strength went above and beyond the normal limits of a human being.

"What do you mean by that?" Carol asked him.

"Mom, Slayers have some enhanced abilities. They're kind of necessary to fight vampires and demons," Alice explained. She glanced around the room and also perused her mental catalog of all the things in their home which might have some use in such a demonstration. There were very few options that did not entail some threat of destruction, such as kicking the door off its hinges or punching through the wall. Her mother would certainly not appreciate those.

"You should see how strong she is," Hatter touted with gusto. "She kicked that fat git Dodo clear across a room and nearly through the wall. Then she lifted him up above her head and slammed him onto a desk. It was bloody hilarious!"

Carol did not seem to share his enthusiasm. She stared at him in the grips of speechless disbelief before turning her eyes to her daughter. Alice shrank back, her cheeks turning crimson.

"Come on, Alice. Show her how strong you are!" Hatter wheedled. He gestured to himself. "You can use me. Just toss me across the room or down the hallway."

"What?" Alice sputtered. "No!"

"Why not?"

She vigorously shook her head. "Are you crazy? You could get hurt!" Not to mention such an act could result in the property destruction she was trying to avoid.

He flapped his hand, appearing to be completely unperturbed by that prospect. "Oh I can take it. I'm from Wonderland. We're made of strong stuff. Dodo seemed to be all right after you chucked him across his office and into a wall and he's kind of old. I, on the other hand, am all young and fit." His lips curled up into a cocky grin, which she had to shamelessly admit was quite sexy and befitting of him.

Carol just sat in silent wonderment, observing the exchange with unreadable features.

"Come on, love. I trust you," Hatter asserted. "But your mum needs some proof."

Alice drew in a deep breath and regarded her boyfriend. She appreciated his trust in her abilities, and it was not unduly misplaced. She had learned better than any Slayer how to control and modulate her strength. It had been a necessary skill to master in order to work with regular people on a day-to-day basis. A controlled toss like Hatter was asking could be accomplished with little to no damage.

"All right, get up," Alice relented. He eagerly obeyed and she shook her head at his bizarre excitement to participate in an act which could result in bodily injury. While she had to admire his cockiness, it did not bode well for living on a hellmouth. Misplaced confidence had killed some of the best Slayers she had known.

"Alice, really, you need to stop this…charade," her mother protested, rising from her seat.

The protests fell silent when Alice grabbed a fistful of Hatter's silk shirt and hoisted him into the air with one arm. It belatedly occurred to her that perhaps that was all the demonstration of her immense strength that would be required. Her mother let out a screeching gasp at the sight. But Hatter's cockiness had tapped into her own dormant desire to show off, and so the move had already been sanctioned by upper management. With one controlled heave, she thrust her arm outward, propelling her boyfriend into the air. Her aim struck true, landing him on the couch, though he actually bounced off the cushioned edge and tumbled to the carpet with a grunt.

"Ow, I think I bruised me bum," Hatter complained as he got to his feet, rubbing his backside. Otherwise, he appeared to be completely unharmed. Alice breathed a sigh of relief.

She just shook her head, unable to dispel the smirk forming on her face. "Don't say I didn't warn you," she told him.

He gave her a devious grin, his eyes lighting up with a particular gleam. "I guess you'll just have to…" he then stopped himself from completing what was no doubt going to be an inappropriately timed sexual request. His gaze flashed towards her shell-shocked mother and he awkwardly cleared his throat. "Right, well then, good show, Alice. I think we got the point across."

"Oh my god," Carol whispered from behind Alice.

The girl turned to face her. "See? No amount of years of martial arts training could give me the strength to do that."

"Oh my god," her mother moaned again. She cupped one hand over her mouth, while the other flew back to steady herself against the table. Her legs buckled and Alice immediately rushed to her side to help ease her back into the chair.

Carol sat at the table, her head bowed into her hands. Alice withdrew a few paces back to give her mother some space. Hatter, the devious grin wiped from his face and replaced with a serious, concerned expression, wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

"Oh my god…all those times you were out with your friends," Carol mumbled, her voice muffled by the hands pressed up against her lips. She sucked in a deep breath of air and slid her hands down. The skin of her face was completely bleached. "You'd be gone for days sometimes…oh my god. That's why."

"Well, it wasn't always because I was fighting demons. Sometimes we were actually just hanging out," Alice said weakly.

"How come you've never been hurt?" Carol demanded. "That has to be so dangerous!" Her gaze probed Alice's face. The girl cringed when the wrecking ball of realization slammed into her mother. "Oh my god…you were fighting…them…tonight, weren't you? That's what happened to your face."

The last thing Alice wanted to do was review the lengthy inventory of injuries she had sustained throughout the years as a Vampire Slayer. Her mother was long overdue the truth, but she did not need to know all the dirty details.

Alice swallowed, unable to resist the impulse to glance away from her mother's piercing eyes. "This is really nothing, Mom. We heal very fast and Slayers can take a lot more damage than a normal person," she admitted.

Hatter made a hissing noise of protest. But the words were out, and she had completely overlooked the fact that her mother was a very sharp woman. Carol picked up on the sinister implication like a bloodhound on a scent. Breath wheezed from her mouth in a wrenching sob. Pure, gut-wrenching horror, the very emotion Alice had always tried to avoid eliciting from her mother because of this job, overtook her features.

"Oh my god…Alice…" Her mother trembled.

Never had she seen her mother so distraught, not even after her father disappeared or after the search for him was finally halted. She ached to do something to comfort her, to wipe that anguish from her face. But she remained rooted to the spot by fear. Fear that now her mother knew the truth, she would never see her in the same way again. Up until this moment, she had never realized just how much she had depended on her mother's steady, composed attitude. Her cheerful practicality had always been a solid foundation for her to fall back on. The woman had been her rock amidst a sea of never-ending chaos. And now, with this revelation, she may have just destroyed her own safe harbor. The thought left her feeling bereft and afraid. She gripped Hatter's hand, only just barely remembering not to clutch so hard. It seemed more auspicious than ever that he had come into her life.

"Have I met them?"

The question, posed in a surprisingly serene tone, caught Alice off guard. She did not understand what her mother was asking. "I'm sorry…have you met who?"

"Those friends of yours that are…" Carol swallowed, "like you."

"Oh, um…" She had to give the answer some thought. "A few, I guess," she concluded with uncertainty. "Maire is a Slayer. So are Shannon and Faith. I think you've also met Bekah, Chloe, Vi, Katie…maybe Reeta. Other than that, I'm not sure. I really didn't keep track." She was not certain why this was important, but she sincerely hoped she had not just inadvertently landed all those girls on some sort of blacklist.

"What about Cindy?" Her mother named off a girl Alice had been friends with since middle school and with whom she attended college with. Cindy's was one of the few friendships she had managed to maintain outside the circle of Slayers, witches, vampires, demons, and otherwise supernatural beings.

Alice shook her head. "Cindy's not. And, before you ask, she doesn't know about me being a Slayer."

Her mother visibly flinched at the word. She hoped that was just because she had not been fully acclimated to the idea yet.

As if the last question was not random enough, the next one her mother asked came entirely from left field to Alice.

"That's what happened to your father, isn't it?" she asked. She glanced up at Alice, her eyes seething with dread and misery. "He was taken by one of those…" a deep shudder ran through her, "things."

"What?" Alice obtusely replied.

"Oh my god! Did you have to…slay him?" the woman cried.

"No! No, no," Alice quickly and emphatically assured her. "And thank god because there's enough drama in all this already. I don't even want to imagine the amount of therapy I would need if that happened. No, the hellmouth and Slayer stuff actually had nothing to do with Dad's disappearance. Kind of ironic isn't it?"

"Or not, depending on how you look at it," Hatter chimed.

Whatever irony or lack thereof existed, Carol did not seem to appreciate it. She leveled a shrewd, bloodshot gaze at Alice. "How do you know it had nothing to do with your father's disappearance?"

Right about now it would have been real useful to have developed some skills with magic. A teleportation spell or invisibility spell was looking quite appealing. But there was no way to avoid dropping this bomb, not after she had already dropped the other two. There was no predicting how her mother would react to the truth about her father and where he had been. In all honesty, she did not know what to expect.

"Because Dad is alive and I saw him…in Wonderland," she confessed.

Carol's jaw nearly unhinged with how far it dropped. She gawked at her daughter while an eternity of silence passed.

"Remember how we told you that men from Wonderland would abduct people from this side?"

Her mother did not nod or react in any way, shape, or form to the question, but Alice decided to assume she had heard and registered it.

"Well, Dad was one of the ones who got abducted. Only, unlike most everyone else, his was a targeted abduction. They wanted him for his knowledge and training in biochemistry and neurology. They brainwashed him, wiped his memories of us and his life here completely clean and implanted new, false memories of working in the labs over there."

Carol's hand fluttered down to her chest. Her mouth remained agape, her eyes as wide as tea saucers.

Alice's voice cracked as she unveiled the full and ugly truth. "They transformed him into a man called Carpenter under the direct order of the Queen of Hearts. And he created the method of extracting emotions from the people over here and also devised the ways to keep them in a perpetual, waking dream-like state so they never knew what was happening to them."

"No!" Carol's wail was strident. "Listen to yourself, Alice…do you realize what you're saying?"

She regarded her mother with weary sadness. "I do. It's the truth. But let me finish, please. There's more to it."

Carol closed her mouth. More tears slipped down her cheeks.

"You have to understand, Mom. That wasn't Dad doing those things. Dad would never have done something so unethical. It goes against everything he stood for, I know this. But he wasn't your husband. He wasn't my father. He was the Carpenter at the time. And he was the key to taking down the Queen of Hearts. You asked why I was the objective of Jack's mission. Well, Dad was the reason why. The Resistance needed me to wake him up, to make him remember who he really was so he would release those people."

Carol shook uncontrollably. "Oh my god…Alice, this can't be true. It can't be. If your father is still alive and was in Wonderland, why isn't he with you?"

"He is alive," Alice insisted gently. She tentatively approached her mother and crouched down on one knee. "He's alive and he remembers everything. I woke him up." Specifically, it had been her fall off the top level of the city to what everyone had figured would be her death that had woken her father up. But she was not about to elaborate on that one.

"He'll be coming back, Mrs. Hamilton," Hatter added. "He only stayed to help the rest of your people and some of the Wonderland folk who had been twisted by the emotions. But he's coming back here to you and Alice. He misses you a lot."

Alice laid a hand on her mother's knee, a small smile spreading on her face. "See? Dad's coming back! Isn't that good news?"

Carol sniffled and drew up a trembling hand to push away some hair which had become adhered to her face by the tears. "I...don't…this can't be real."

Her heart sank at those words of denial.

"Sweetheart, I know your father's disappearance traumatized you. I should have taken you to see a therapist when you were younger," Carol mumbled. Every few words there was an interjecting hiccup.

Alice groaned and pulled herself to her feet. "Mom, I'm not crazy. This isn't a delusion-spawned cry for help. This is the truth. You saw me lift Hatter into the air with one arm and toss him a good ten feet, right? I mean, if you can accept the whole Vampire Slayer bit, why can't you accept the truth about Dad and Wonderland?"

Tears streamed down Carol's face. She wrapped her arms around herself and hunched over her knees. She stayed in that position, quietly weeping while Alice watched over her in helpless agony.

"Mom, I'm so sorry I kept the slaying stuff from you. I know I should have told you the truth from the beginning," she stated. Grudgingly, she had to admit she had a better grasp of Jack's dilemma about keeping his true identity from her. It made her feel like an awful hypocrite.

"And I know these other things are a major shock. But I swear on my life that it's all true. Dad will be here in two weeks. He'll back me up. So…just try to hang in there till then, okay?" Surely seeing the man she loved whom she had never stopped loving would heal the wounds inflicted on her heart since his disappearance. Through the years without her father, Alice had seen how her mother would bravely lock away her pain and focus her energy into taking care of the two of them. She had hidden her longing for him well, but Alice knew it was always there. Why else would she never have allowed herself to pursue a casual fling let alone a meaningful relationship? There must have been some part of Carol that had held onto the hope that her husband was alive and would eventually return.

"I think…I think I'm going to go to bed now," Carol stated hollowly. Her blotchy face and eyes were disturbingly blank. Whatever she was feeling or thinking, she hid it well. It was a mask of reticence that would have earned a seal of approval from the duchess.

Alice and Hatter exchanged worried glances.

"Uh, okay, if that's what you want," Alice replied with some hesitance. "Are you okay?"

Her mother rose from the table, keeping her face averted from Hatter and Alice. She stood there, seemingly trying to compose herself and her thoughts before finally lifting her gaze up to the couple.

"Mr. Hatter, I apologize for this rather…unorthodox first meeting. To be honest, I'm still not sure what to think of you or…where you supposedly come from, but I can see that you make my daughter happy. So long as you do that, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt," she informed him.

"Uh, thanks," Hatter responded diffidently. "I think."

"Mom-"

Carol held her hand up, effectively silencing her daughter's protest. "Alice, please," she requested in a soft, calm voice which belied her inner turmoil, "no more. I just…I'm tired. And I need to think. I need some time to process all this."

Alice nodded curtly, feeling a lump rise up her throat. She forlornly watched her mother retreat down the hallway and disappear behind her bedroom door. After a few moments of silence, she crumpled into Hatter's arms, weeping.

"She hates me! This is all my fault. I should have told her the truth six years ago and now look at what I've done!" she wailed. "I'm such a crappy daughter."

"Shhhh, love, that's not true," Hatter said soothingly, rubbing her back. He gently tugged her towards the couch. "She's just had a wee bit of a shock, is all. You said that most everyone doesn't believe in this kind of stuff over here. You can't exactly expect her to convert after one night."

"But the way she looked at me, Hatter. It was like she didn't even want to look at me. She couldn't even make herself say the word 'Slayer'. I'm like an alien to her…what if she's afraid of me now? Like I'm not something human. And I thought she'd be happy to hear about Dad, but…" Her words became lost amidst the sobs wracking her body. She felt like she was grieving. Grieving the loss of the strong bond between her and her mother. For now things would surely never be the same between them. And she had no one to blame but herself.

She rested her head against Hatter's shoulder, her face turned inward to press up against the leather of his jacket. The absurd wish to keep his jacket free from the saltiness of her tears made her turn her face outward again.

"Alice, listen to me, your mum loves you more than anything. She's shaken up right now, but that doesn't mean she loves you any less," Hatter said. His tone was full of firm compassion. "Think about what you just told her about yourself. She's going to have to come to grips with the fact that your job is so dangerous and…" he drew in a deep, shuddering breath, "well, it's not something a mother would particularly like hearing about her only child. I didn't much like hearing it meself, but, it's who you are. That's probably why she can't bring herself to say your title. It probably represents to her the one thing most likely to…take you away from her."

She read the meaning in his voice, practically hearing him include himself at the end of that sentence. That only served to bring forth another fresh batch of tears streaking down her cheeks. This was not how she had envisioned spending her first night back home with Hatter. It was supposed to have been a joyous affair, preferably the majority of it spent in a bed without clothes. Instead she was sobbing over the pain and distress she had caused her mother on her living room sofa. She was letting her feminine weaknesses and insecurities overrule her usual level-headed competence.

"I'm sorry, Hatter. I know we had much better things planned tonight," she murmured in a raspy voice. She rubbed at her eyes and pulled her dark hair back from her face.

He smiled gently and bestowed a kiss on her forehead. "I can't think of anything better than just being here with you." Like clockwork, that soft smile transformed into a smirk. "Okay, I lied, I can think of something better than just being with you." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Being inside you."

In spite of herself, she laughed and then smacked him on the arm. "You're so bad."

"You like it. And, look, it got you to smile. So I guess you're just as bad as me," he teased while twirling a dark lock of hair around his finger.

She offered a half-smile in response to that. With a heavy sigh, she threw a glimpse over her shoulder towards the hallway leading towards her and her mother's bedrooms. "Think she'll ever forgive me?" she asked him.

"Of course she will. Not that I think there's really much to forgive. I mean, sure you kept the whole Slayer bit from her for six years, but I would think that the nature of your job more than compensates for that," Hatter confidently replied. "Just give her some time and space. In fact, I think you should give her so much space that you need not spend the night here tonight. Why I happen to have a place somewhere in the neighborhood you could find safe haven."

"Oh really?" Alice asked saucily, happy to join the banter. "And what would I have to do for the privilege of this safe haven?"

Hatter pretended to think about this, scratching his chin and wrinkling his brow. She suppressed the uprising of giggles. Really, it was wonderfully confounding how he managed to lift her spirits with such effortless alacrity. "Oh, there are a lot of things you may have to do. For starters, I believe there's the matter of a bruised bum that needs massaging."

"I do believe you volunteered for that so I take no responsibility for that bruised bum," she pointed out. Not that she was unwilling to give his well-toned buttocks a massage. She just enjoyed giving him a hard time.

"Hmmm…sorry, love, this offer of safe haven is conditional upon an arse massage and completely non-negotiable. Also note there is the condition that I get to lick you out for as long as I want," he told her in a mock stern voice.

Her pulse quickened, sending warmth spiraling through her veins. Her nether regions throbbed with awakened excitement, moving her to unconsciously press her thighs closer together. She let out an exaggerated sigh of resignation. "Well, if you must, then I suppose I agree to your terms."

"Good, we'll leave immediately," he replied in that same mock stern voice before sheepishly adding, "But you'll have to take us there because I haven't the faintest bloody clue where I live now."

Don't forget to review, please! Oh and if you want to see the collection of photos inspired by this story, check out my profile where I posted a link to my photobucket account. I'm always happy to take suggestions for more good photos or artwork, too!