A/N: Y'know who I hate? Fanfic authors who don't update. No really, I think they should be sent to the lowest levels of fandom hell. Which is where I'm going to take myself as soon as this is published.

In all siriusness, though, I'm really sorry I didn't update last week. But family+homework+a bout of iron-sided-steel-reinforced-brick-wall writer's block=no fic for HeadPhones. So here's this chapter, and I'll get back on track next week.

This chapter is dedicated to Katy23, who gave me the idea for this What If?

I disclaim.

Hatter wakes and blinks the bleariness of sleep out of his eyes. What had disturbed him? Some sort of noise, probably—he had trained himself to be a light sleeper, and the uncomfortable position on the rocky ground only heightened that ability—and there was no shortage of stray noises in these woods.

Prob'ly just a tree shiftin' or somethin' he thinks to himself before settling down again to sleep. Just as he's closing his eyes, however, Hatter notices motion out of the corner of his eye and stiffens just a hair. The motion shifts further into his view, and by the light of the few dying embers left in the fire, he can just make out a blur of blue dress and pale limbs stretching to hang one shadow over another. Alice? Was that his jacket? Why would she...? Oh!

Anger flares inside of him. After everything he'd said, all of the warnings he'd given about the lunacy of the Queen and her court, she was just going to up and leave? Just...just walk right into a trap? Forcing down the rage, Hatter decides that his calm face is most appropriate for the situation, to keep her from bolting like a rabbit. He makes sure his features are smooth before calling out.

"Alice?"

She jumps and turns to face him, guilt written all over the half of her face not shrouded in shadow. "Um...hi, Hatter. I didn't realize you were..." she clears her throat and straightens her shoulders. "Look, I know that you said that Jack couldn't be rescued, and that I should just go home, but I can't just leave him here. He's not a thief, I promise, and I don't know how he got the ring, but it was honest, and he just wanted to impress me, so it's really all my fault he's here in the first place, so I have to help him. Please, understand that."

And everything clicks for Hatter—her single-minded devotion to finding her Jack wasn't a result simply of stubborness.

"You blame yourself." It wasn't a question, but she nods anyway.

"People always leave. It can't be a coincidence that so many people in my life have gone away..." She looks down and to the side, unable to believe that she is spilling so much to a man she's only just met. "None of my friends' dads abandoned them. It had to be something about me that pushed him away." Tears glitter on her eyelashes, and Hatter longs to go to her and brush them away, his anger long since faded away, but stands his ground, sensing that she isn't finished speaking. "And it's even worse with Jack...I actually kicked him out when he tried to offer me the Ring, and now he's in trouble. I have to help him."

Hatter is dumbfounded by her sudden confession. He opens his mouth, ready with more well crafted arguments for why she shouldn't go, but all that comes out is, "I won't leave."

By the muted light of the false dawn, Hatter can see the hard lines of her face soften minutely. "Yeah..." It comes out a sigh. "Yeah, I'm starting to see that."

"But you still have to go?"

She nods.

He sighs resignedly. "Fine, go. I won't stop you. I wish you all the luck in the world, Alice." Hatter draws a smile from reserves so deep he didn't know they existed, and said, "take the jacket though, all right? It was a gift, and the nights here can get cold."

She doesn't respond, just removes the jacket from the post she had hung it on and strides out of the camp. Hatter turns back toward his sleeping place, scoops up his hat, flips it onto his head, and waits for her footsteps to recede. As they do, he turns, and catches one last glimpse of his Oyster before she fades into the growing light of the dawn.

A/N 2: So, I was going to write more of this, in which he was all angsty for a while and then decided to follow her, but I felt like it ended pretty well here, so I'll leave it up to your imaginations what happens next. This definitely isn't my favorite installment, due in part to the fact that I had to force it (sometimes literally word by word) out from behind the writer's block.

But I hope you all liked it!

Till next time,

HeadPhones