AN: A few more questions answered for you and a few more answers questioned. We're in Wonderland, after all.

I do not own or have any rights to Alice, the good folks at SyFy do. And they scare me, what with their alphas and artifacts and aliens...

So give me something to believe
'Cause I am living just to breathe
And I need something more
To keep on breathing for
So give me something to believe

Once again, Alice found herself soaked to the bone on a shore in Wonderland with no change of clothes. This time, at least, she was amongst friends. It was the first chance she'd had to breathe since their daring escape from the Casino and subsequent crash landing in the lake; but breathing didn't come easy. Hatter looked on as Charlie squeezed her for dear life in a bear hug of pure relief.

Alice untangled herself from the old knight's embrace with a hesitant smile. She was glad all three of them made it to shore and found each other. The happiness of the reunion made it all the harder. What she found at the Casino had changed everything. Alice knew what she had to do. What she must do now that she had a clue to finally finding her father. And it broke her heart.

"We should get off this beach before we get spotted," Hatter said soberly, already walking toward the tree line.

"No," Alice said firmly.

Hatter turned and shot her a disbelieving look, "No?"

"Listen, guys. I'm really grateful for what you did," Alice said. But no matter how she put it, somehow it sounded inadequate. "Getting me out of the Casino, I'll never be able to repay you... but I have to go back."

Charlie groaned lamentably. Hatter shook his head without bothering to hide the resentment in his eyes.

"Why are you still hooked on Jack?" Hatter yelled with growing frustration.

"This isn't about Jack!" Alice snapped with equal force. She blinked and looked at the ground sadly. "Not anymore. It's about what Jack gave me." Alice once again pulled her father's watch from the safety of her pocket so Hatter and Charlie could see. "He was trying to help me."

"Really?" Hatter sneered, unconvinced. "'Cos it sounds to me like he was using ya."

"And you're not?" Alice snapped without missing a beat.

Hatter clamped his mouth shut, looking positively contrite. Alice realized instantly that she'd hit a nerve. She could see it in his eyes. Maybe the statement wasn't entirely fair, but there was still just a part of her that couldn't deny it was true. She stared down at the watch in her hands. The familiar features and the weight of it in her hand were enough to remind her of her goal. Of the one thing in any world that she needed to know. The mystery that was always just out of reach. Perhaps, before today, impossible to solve. But now she was staring at her answer. This was the root, the very heart of her curiosity. Alice just had to know. Hatter would have to understand that.

Charlie watched the two of them helplessly from his stump by the fire, unsure of what he could say that would reconcile the hurt playing on both their faces.

"Look," Alice began quietly. "This is the first piece of good news I've gotten since I came here. Everything I thought I knew about my life for the past few months has been a lie. Jack is not coming back with me. But my Dad can."

Hatter frowned. It was a one-track mind with Alice. The man in question had changed, but she always seemed fixated on saving that one person. "Don't you care what's happening here?" he challenged. "All the people's lives who are getting ripped apart by the Queen?"

"Of course I do," Alice huffed. "I'm one of them-"

"Then give the Resistance a chance," Hatter pleaded. He found it strange openly vouching for the Resistance after hiding his association with it for so long. But this was his one chance to get things back on track. And, hearts help him, to keep her. Hatter had traveled the lone rebel path before and it never ended well.

She scoffed, "I met those guys already."

If Hatter thought she was bringing herself, the ring, or the watch back to Dodo he really was mad. Alice felt she'd made more progress with the Queen, of all people.

"One arm of the organization that was," Hatter reasoned, as though it were obvious. "We get to the top man, he'll help us."

That gave Alice pause. She studied his face, wondering not for the first time about Hatter's place in all this. "You know him?" she asked in a small voice.

"Yes," Hatter answered quickly. Too quickly. He thought twice about stretching the truth with Alice. "No," he amended. "Not exactly. Nobody knows his true identity but he goes by a code name: Caterpillar."

"And you think this mysterious benefactor can help find my Dad and bring down the Casino?" Alice asked skeptically.

He nodded. If anyone in Wonderland could, it was Caterpillar. Of that much he was certain. "Give me a few hours. I'll slip back into the city and make contact. You can - " Hatter looked over to the old knight, almost forgotten amidst their conversation. "You can stay with Charlie in the fortress," he volunteered. Charlie didn't seem to mind. The knight stood up clumsily from his seat and reported for duty with a conscientious salute. "You'll be safe there. If I'm not back by nightfall, do it your way."

Alice looked from Hatter to Charlie and back again. The thought of either of them risking their lives for her again nearly made her sick. When it came to her father, this was her fight. But the crafty, smarmy Hatter who lived by playing both sides wanted to give up the con job for a fair fight. He wanted a better future for his people, and that seemed like a worthy goal that deserved her support.

After much consideration, Alice nodded tightly. "Okay."

"Okay," Hatter parroted, clapping his hands together. Good, it was decided. He was just going to slip quietly back into a city crawling with Suits and make contact with the very people that were out to kill him. Easy as an orange on Tuesday. "Brilliant," he deadpanned, swallowing hard. Alice gave him courage; fire in the moment. What was he going to do without her? "Better get gone, then."

He nodded to Charlie and turned in the direction of the - hopefully still concealed - boat. Alice stopped him, pulling firmly on his jacket sleeve. Hatter looked first at her hand and then back up to her face. Her eyes were filled with concern, a vulnerable new emotion in Alice.

"Be careful," she told him and there was no room for argument.

He nodded. For Alice; anything.

Hatter felt his heart just might burst right out of his chest when he saw Alice standing alone atop that grassy hill. When he had caught Charlie sleeping on the job, he despairingly prepared himself for her to be gone again. Or worse. He rushed up the hill, inexplicably anxious to be in her presence again.

"It's good news," he began excitedly. "The Resistance wants to help. They're sending a special agent to take us to meet Caterpillar."

He was out of breath, practically panting for air. When did that happen? Did she notice? It was so painfully obvious to him. Hatter sighed and gestured behind him. "It's quite a steep hill." All that hill's fault. Wasn't because I was rushing up here to see you. Nope.

Yes, Hatter realized dismally. Definitely addicted.

Alice looked unusually pensive and was being even more unusually quiet. "You okay?" he asked in concern.

"I was beginning to think you weren't coming back," Alice said quietly, almost a whisper.

Hatter sulked noticeably, "You still don't trust me?"

"I don't trust anything here," she replied cryptically. "I was beginning to worry."

The thought of Alice worried over him was just too much. Hatter tried to fight it. Fight the sudden reflex to grin like a complete idiot. Fight his eyes wanting to betray the hopeless idealist he was becoming. He wasn't ready to show Alice the hope welling up in his heart that she felt one tenth of the affection he felt for her.

Before he could speak and make a complete fool of himself, she changed the subject. "How soon till he gets here?"

The flutter of excitement inside him proved easily extinguished. Alice had a way of facing an issue with a directness that smothered most weaker sentiments. Hatter shrugged, effectively distracted, "Those guys can move pretty fast when they need to."

"You're going to join them aren't you?" Alice questioned, brow furrowed pensively. "Fight alongside them?"

Hatter shot her a curious look. Since when did Alice care about what he did? "I have to try," he confessed, turning to face her. "As Dodo said, I have lived my life playing both sides of the court. It's the only way I could stay alive. I made the Hearts think I was working for them while I fed their enemies. Those days are over."

"What about your friends?" Alice wondered, assuming the motley crew of undesirables they'd encountered so far could be considered his friends. "Your family?"

"Family?" Hatter asked, laughing humorlessly. Was Alice so naive? By the serious look on her face, he guessed she was. "My family's long gone, Alice. When your father works for the Queen, heads will roll, yeah?"

Alice's eyes fell to the ground at his comment. He winced. Hatter had nearly forgotten about her own father, who she believed to be trapped in the Casino. And here he was talking about beheadings. Stupid, stupid, stupid. If the ground opened up and swallowed him, vanishing him faster than a boojum, he didn't think he'd mind.

"Look," he said gently. "If this all goes right, you and your dad will be home safe together and you'll forget about this whole mess." And about me, his mind added sadly. But such things were for the best.

"Hatter, how - " Alice hedged, studying her fingers intently. "How do families happen in Wonderland?"

Hatter stared at her blankly for a long moment as he tried to decipher exactly what she was asking. "Well," he began slowly. "When a man and a woman love one another very much..."

Alice paled. Oh, lord. She just had to know, and now she was about to get the talk from Hatter.

He continued, oblivious, "...they take vows to one another. And when they decide to make little ones, they go to the Carpenter."

"The Carpenter?"Alice asked, baffled. That was out of left field. She had heard many different euphemisms for sex in her time but she doubted this was one of them. Was she being fed a stork myth?

Hatter nodded and expounded on what he thought had been a reasonably straight forward comment. "Yes. Carpenter. The happy couple proves their love to him and he gives 'em a child," he explained plainly.

"He just... gives it to them?"

"Yes," Hatter said, though his assuredness was shaking a bit. "Is it different on your side?"

Alice frowned, defeated. Any notion that Jack had held off on sleeping with her for love or old fashioned chivalry flew out the window. He just didn't know better. Suddenly all the times she made the first move made sense. In his world, two people in love just didn't act the same way.

Hatter nodded to himself. He seemed resolved, as though he'd come to a decision in his own mind.

"This has something to do with that whole 'making love' bit?" he questioned carefully. "Birds and bees? Like how they make ecstasy Tea."

Hatter wasn't really clued in on the details of the process but he'd heard talk. People always talked. Especially in the Tea Shoppe.

Alice froze, her face hardening, "They force people to... make ecstasy Tea?"

Hatter bristled, panicking over yet another poor choice of wording. "Did I say - make…" he trailed off nervously. "I'm sure it's all, ya know... consensual."

Alice was visibly disturbed by this knowledge. Asexual Wonderlanders relying on 'Oysters' and 'Tea' to feel desire. Magic cabbage patch babies delivered by a mysterious Carpenter. Somehow, the pieces of the puzzle just weren't adding up. And the wild theories spinning in her head were so twisted and frightening that she prayed they weren't true.

"We should get back. To Charlie," Alice said suddenly.

"Okay," Hatter agreed. He was puzzled by Alice's impromptu line of questioning and her adverse reaction to his answers but was hesitant to push her further.

The pair started down the hill and through the woods back to Charlie's fortress, walking in silence until Alice slowed to a stop.

"What's the matter?" Hatter asked cautiously. Other than the obvious distress she exhibited from their earlier conversation, something else seemed to be weighing on her.

"What will I do?" Alice whispered. "If I get stuck here?"

Hatter nodded to himself and voiced what he had already decided. "Then I'll make sure you're okay," he told her earnestly. Alice was his charge whether she liked it or not. He placed his hands soothingly on her arms and willed her to believe him. Her walls were down and fearful eyes were begging for comfort. And Hatter knew just the comforting gesture.

"I think your luck's finally changing," he murmured absently. But the words didn't matter because she was close. And he was leaning in. A kiss. He was going to get a waking, fully participatory kiss from Alice. In the light of day. And it was going to be the most wonderful feeling in the all the worlds.

"That's right, it is," an unwelcome voice chimed in, cutting through the glorious anticipation between them and shattering Hatter's perfect moment.

The most unwelcome voice of Jack Heart.

AN: Thank you again to beta celticvampriss for all her help. Here's one cuppa Gratitude Tea, just for you