Visited in the Enchanted Forest.

Alice opened the door to find a gorgeous woman standing on the other side in an outfit of black and feathers. This was the Evil Queen that the Hatter had told her about so many times, about her magic and her dark nature. It made Alice regret opening the door to the woman.

"Hello, Alice," the woman smiled kindly. "May I come in?"

Alice frowned but let the woman in anyway, taking a step away from the door to give the woman enough room to sweep in. She looked around the house, taking in every aspect of the Hatter's house as if it were more important than the girl who'd let her in. Alice knew this trick from her own world, the queen trying to make Alice feel insignificant. It almost made Alice feel better that the evil queen did in fact have some human qualities that she recognized.

"The Hatter is to town at the moment," Alice told the queen softly, shutting the door before following the woman. "I don't know when he'll be back,"

"Then it is a good thing I didn't come here for him," the Evil Queen commented as she fingered one of the white roses sitting on a vase on the table. "I can here for you,"

That gave Alice pause, briefly wondering for her safety.

"Oh don't worry, my dear," the Evil Queen waved her off with a deceptively evil smile. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to offer you a deal,"

"A deal?"

"Yes. I want to send you where you belong,"

Alice frowned, crossing her arms over her chest as she eyed the woman. "Really?"

"Yes," the queen smiled, turning to face her completely since the first time she'd entered the house. "I wish to send you where you belong,"

"And why would you do that?" Alice asked, having learned even before she dropped into Wonderland that people rarely did things for others unless the received something in return. "What is it that you wish to accomplish? Because I don't have anything to pay you with and you rightly know this fact… what do you want?"

The Evil Queen's got as wide as the Cheshire Cat's at a second's notice. "You're a smart girl, Alice. I commend you,"

"And you'll tell me the truth,"

This caused the queen's smile to stiffen a bit before she nodded her head. "Fine. I won't lie to you. I want you gone so that Jefferson will return to his work and I can travel between worlds again,"

It was true that he'd stopped portal jumping. After the fiasco in Neverland when she'd gotten caught up with the Lost Boys and nearly killed by someone of the poison on the island, the Hatter hadn't done any portal jumping. Every time a job would come to him he'd turn it away before going to make himself some tea which he'd drink alone near a window. She'd known after the first job he turned down that it had been because of her.

"Don't you notice the change in him? He used to portal jump for fun. And then you show up? Now he won't even do one jump for work. You don't you think that you've ruined things?"

"I've ruined nothing," Alice snapped. "It's his own choice to stop jumping. He can leave me here and jump anytime he likes. Maybe he just is tired of it all,"

The Evil Queen grinned, stalking towards her. "You really don't know him well, do you?"

Alice frowned. In fact, she knew her Hatter better than what the Evil Queen thought or what Hatter wanted her to. She'd known his name for a few months now but had refused the name that he hadn't offered her. She knew that he only made his tea for after her portal jumped, as if it were a celebration that he'd survived or a way for him to calm down after. She knew that liked being brooding and sad rather than happy, his face almost breaking whenever she forced him to laugh. She knew that he preferred the simple portal jumping jobs to the ones that had him running at full kilt towards the portals and back to the Enchanted Forest. She knew that he liked her more than he wanted to admit to her, to even himself. He'd accidently let her in through his outer defenses and at the thought of losing her, he'd done the only thing he could think of to keep her safe even if it was stupid.

He'd stopped portal jumping.

"I can send you where you belong," the Evil Queen repeated, reaching a hand out to her. "Just give me your hand and we'll be on our way,"

"No,"

The woman's eyes widened in surprise. "What?"

"Where I belong," Alice repeated with a snort. "You don't know where I'm from, never did you say back where I belong or back home. I know word tricks better than you might think,"

The Evil Queen sneered at her. "You think I would do that?"

"I think you want your Hatter back," Alice told her, stepping closer to the woman. "I think that you'd throw me in a dungeon or kill me and bury me at the bottom of a deep pit- where I belong- and tell Hatter that I ran away from him or was killed by something or sometime else that would make me sound like a brat. You would do this if you thought that would gain you your Hatter,"

The Evil Queen frowned at her before she turned and headed for the door, only stopping when she'd reached it. "If you are so smart, little Alice, then you should understand that without his ability to portal jump… I have absolutely no use for Jefferson,"

Alice glared as the Evil Queen looked at her over her shoulder.

"Wouldn't it be a shame if we both lost our dear Hatter?"