Disclaimer: Of course I don't own it.

I'm back! And with a long(ish) chapter. More up soon! Thanks for sticking with me.

Just a side note: Donia is about 27, so it's been 14 years since she was captured. And for own purposes and amused Hatter and Alice are both around 20. And Caterpillar is about 60ish. Now that everything's settled… let the shenanigans commence!

Yea, I just said shenanigans.

Donia wasn't happy.

Not that the two suits that had returned from the Tulgey Wood had expected anything else. The Red Queen may have been a tyrant, but she would never have been insane enough to send into the Tulgey after the sun had already set. She would have beheaded them for not returning immediately to the casino. But instead this woman had insisted that they look for Alice and her friends until they found them.

Unfortunately, the suits had found a few Jabberwockies first.

Donia, however, didn't care that most of them had become dinner.

"How could you have let them get away? You idiots! You let a few dumb animals stop you from catching up to an injured conman, an Oyster, a broken down man, and the Duchess. That's the most pathetic thing I've ever heard." Her voice, dangerously quiet, made both men start shaking. She was more terrifying than the old queen had ever hoped of being.

"Now what am I going to do with you? I can't have this kind of incompetence surrounding me. Not when this kingdom is about to fall apart at any moment. Perhaps I should just execute you?" The suits new she was perfectly capable of issuing such a command. "But no. That would be easy. That would be quick. How about I just lock you two up in the dungeon?" A wicked smile spread across her face as panic danced across theirs. "Oh, I've take it you've heard a thing or two about the dungeon here? You're not scared, are you?"

Donia stood up and crossed the room. She stopped in front of the suits, staring them down with empty eyes. After a minute, she slapped both viciously across the face, her nails leaving marks on both of them. "I'm feeling merciful today, so I won't kill you. But I do expect you to go back and scour every inch of those words until you find them. If I see either of you before I have them, you will die. Now leave."

They didn't waste any time obeying her.

Obviously she was going to have to send someone better than the suits to find that wretched group. She needed Alice and the Duchess either under her control or dead – preferably the latter. But she couldn't leave the palace herself, not with Jack not fully under her control. He'd resisted today, not for more than a few moments, but for that time she could taste the rebellion stirring in him. It would be difficult to maintain control for long, especially if either of those women were able to give any more support to the Resistance.

She needed Hatta and Haigha.

Both men had been with her in the dungeon. Messengers for the White King before the Hearts had taken over, they'd been in prison for 20 years. They'd managed to stay relatively sane long after others had snapped. They'd felt for the poor girl locked away, but eventually they were subjected to the dark teas as well. Hatta was more stable, and he'd merely stopped talking after a few weeks. He seemed to go completely emotionless, giving only a blank stare to anyone that would speak to him. Haigha on the other hand became completely unhinged. He spent his days swinging back and forth between being gleefully happy and then sobbing and raging. The darks teas also seemed to have eradicated his conscience. The few times he'd gotten his hands on another prisoner that had offended him, they'd been reduced to scraps fairly quickly. Haigha was not charmingly mad. He was psychotic.

It didn't matter that Mad March was dead. The pair was just as skilled at tracking while being infinitely more vicious than the rabbit head had ever considered. They would do quite nicely for dealing with the idiots that were trying to defy her.

They'd been riding all day, and no one was very happy at the moment. Duchess was doing her best to maintain a good attitude, but there was only so much she could handle. Riding was making her nauseous and she was really hungry. Alice was stiff from not having gotten enough sleep the night before, having stayed up talking to Hatter. Even after he'd fallen asleep, curled up in her arms, looking painfully young, she'd been unable to drift off. She was so worried about him. Only a few days had passed since he'd been in a jail cell, in terrible shape. And she didn't' care if he said he healed quickly – there was no way he was completely better. Now this thing with his father… Alice simply wasn't sure how much more he could handle. Right now he was riding in front of her quietly, without the tension from yesterday, but he wasn't speaking much.

"Charlie, how much longer before we get there? It can't possibly be that far away," she asked, trying not to whine.

"Surely not much longer," Duchess interjected, not attempting to disguise her whining as anything but.

Charlie huffed and turned around. "What are you young people made of these days? I'm much more advanced in age than you too, and yet I'm as fit as a fiddle!" He punctuated his sentence by pounding his fist against his armor, prompting a small coughing fit. Alice did her best to hide her laughter. "At any rate, do you see those buildings in the distance? That's the town we're going to. It's only an hour's ride from here."

An hour later they approached the small town. Alice had no idea these places even existed in Wonderland – she'd only ever seen the city and the casino. It looked very similar a rural village out of Austen's England. She smiled at a young boy who perched on a fence right at the edge of the village. He waved back, then took off running down the road.

Hatter spoke, slightly startling Alice. "Why exactly are we here? How can a simple village help us?"

Duchess gave a mirthless laugh. "These are hardly simple villagers." At his questioning look, she continued. "They're all members of the new Resistance and their families. There are a lot of places like this hidden among the hills, but this is the current base of operations. We're lucky, really. Had it been a week later, we would have had a few more days of riding before reaching Caterpillar. The leaders move fairly regularly."

Alice felt Hatter wince at the mention of his father's name. She rubbed his shoulder and arm, trying to comfort him. "I'm fine, love," he whispered, although she didn't really believe him. However, she let it go for the moment.

The boy was now returning down the road with a few adults in tow. They looked suspicious until they got closer. "Charlie? Is that you?"

"Yes, my good sirs. We desperately need to see Caterpillar. It's a matter of the utmost importance."

"Who's that with you then?" another man asked.

Charlie smiled. "Don't you recognize them? Tis the Queen, the Lady Alice, and the Hatter, the most loyal friends of the realm."

"Really? The Alice?"

Alice rolled her eyes, mumbling, "Not this again," but then pasted on a smile. Whoever these men were, they seemed to want to help them out.

She was right. Within minutes they were off the horses and being led to a warm house. The day had taken a surprisingly chilly turn, not unusual for Wonderland's mercurial weather patterns. Alice was glad to get close to a fire. Several adult women where in a kitchen to welcome them, Bowls of hot stew and warm, fresh bread were set in front of them, which Alice and Duchess both dug into happily. Hatter, however, stayed back.

"I need to see Caterpillar now," he stated bluntly.

One of the women shook her head. "No, eat first, there'll be time for that later."

But Hatter wasn't having that. "No, I can eat later. I have speak to him now." His tone of voice left no room for argument.

"Alright, he's two doors down to the right."

Hatter ducked out, leaving most of the women in the room staring after him. Preempting any questions, Alice simply stated, "Yes, he's always like that. Really, it's just better to let him work this one out."

The slightly older woman smiled. "I take it he's yours then?"

Alice started to say no, but stopped herself. "Yeah, I guess he is," she said, unable to stop herself from grinning. The other women all chuckled.

"He is a looker, that one, although I must say he seems to be a bit on the odd side."

"Oh, you have no idea," Alice answered with a laugh. But she became thoughtful quickly. "He's a good man though."

"Oh dear, we had no doubts about that. We've all heard how he rescued your life many times, helped bring down the Queen of Hearts, then got thrown into the dungeon for standing up to whatever insanity worked its way into his highness."

Alice smiled. She really was lucky to have him. She just wished she could help him with this issue with his dad, but she realized how personal it was. She just hoped that he would be ok.

Hatter stood outside the door, hesitating. How could he be afraid to see his own father when he'd waited this long already? He'd worked out everything that he wanted to say years ago – all he needed was the guts. But standing in front of that door, Hatter only felt like a young boy again, one who desperately wanted his father to come back home, who didn't know what he had done to make him leave, who obviously wasn't enough to keep him around.

He had to do this before he lost his nerve. HE took a deep breath, then opened the door.

Caterpillar – his father – was sitting in the middle of the room, pouring over a table of charts and hand-written notes. His back was to the door. Not looking up, he said, "Charlie, I've been expecting you. Come in, please."

Hatter stepped inside and closed the door.

"I'm not Charlie. Sorry."

Caterpillar stopped writing. He sat up a little straighter, but didn't turn around.

"Who are you then?"

"I go by Hatter these days, but when you knew me I believe I was called David. Occasionally "'son' too. At least that 's what I remember… Dad." Caterpillar was absolutely still. "Then again, I was six, so my memory about then isn't that great. Except for the important stuff."

The older man finally turned around and looked at Hatter.

"So, I see Charlie told you then?"

"Of course he did." Hatter attempted to keep the emotion out of his voice, but he stills feels like it's about to crack. "I was… well, shocked I guess."

"I suppose you want to talk about what happened then?" His voice contained no emotion, no remorse. It was worse than Hatter had feared. In his imagination, the man in front him had either been ecstatic to be reunited with his son, or miserable, or at least angry. But instead a seemingly apathetic man sat in front of him, no feelings to be seen.

"Sure, how bout starting with the fact that you abandoned me and my mother, then never contacted us again. Does that work for you?"

Caterpillar sighed. "I know you don't understand. It was a necessity. It was to protect the both of you. If the queen had found out about the two of you, you would have been dead. Your mother understood that."

Hatter swallowed the anger building inside, his stomach curling. "Yeah, I'm sure she did, especially when she died a few years later. Nothing wrong with her physically, she just gave up on life. Even the doctors said so. Sounded like a woman who understood what you did really well."

His father flinched. Hatter was secretly pleased, happy to get any sort of reaction out of him. "That was regrettable. I'm truly sorry."

"Sorry? You're sorry? Really? And what about leaving me in the hands of Dodo afterwards? What then? Was leaving me to fend for myself for my own protection?"

"No, but it was the best place for you at the time. You wouldn't have been safe-"

"Safe? As if. I'm amazed I made it out of there alive. That man hated me and sent me to do the most dangerous things by myself. He still hates me. And you saw how he treated people around him. Yet you entrusted him with your son? Right."

Hatter could feel the anger boiling inside but couldn't stop spewing out the words.

"I know it wasn't ideal. I wish there'd been another way, but there wasn't at the time. I suffered too."

He didn't want to hear these words. "So much that you apparently couldn't find the time to tell your son that you were alive."

Several minutes passed before either of them spoke again. Caterpillar stared out the window while Hatter tried to look anywhere but at the man who was supposed to be a father. As far as he could tell, the man had no emotions any more, no remorse, no regrets. Perhaps the loving father he'd known as a kid really was made up in his head, the hopeful dreams of a lonely boy. There was no way he could no the storm raging inside his father, how badly he wanted to just give his child a hug, how much he wanted to apologize for. But there was no time for that now. He had to push through it now. Reconciliation would have to come later.

"I am sorry. But it was necessary. It was horrible what I had to do, leaving you and your mother behind, but it had to be done. Hopefully you'll understand that one day, Davie."

Hearing his father's special nickname for him was too much for Hatter at that moment. Memories of his childhood came crashing down on him. He didn't know whether to write this man off or break down crying. Either way, he had to get away from him, and now.

After the door slammed shut, Caterpillar slowly turned back to his table and resumed writing.

So I know that comes off as kind of harsh – Caterpillar really mostly sucks right now. But there's much more to come! Including some action in the next chapter, which will be up soon! Love you all. Reviews always welcome.