I'm not dead, I've just been writers blocked and hopefully I fixed it. Now enjoy!

"I can't believe it." Alice mused for the fifth or sixth time, twisting the key in her hands nervously around. "I just can't."

"I agree with you completely, my dear." Lord Ascot replied, pushing open the now some what unlocked door and taking a few steeps into the dusty room. "Well….I believe this is it."

Alice followed her employer through the dark threshold of the unused part of the manor. Curtains were drawn, and there was a fine coating of dust around everything, which Lord Ascot promised he would have the maids clean up at once, but Alice didn't mind. She was much more preoccupied with her own troubles to worry about a bit of dust.

The awkward silence as 'Nigel's' proposition hung in the air. The way Hatter had almost stood up and ripped his head off like the very knave had watched for countless years while Alice was right behind him. The arguing after that, finally resulting in if Alice didn't prove herself then it would be handed over to someone more right for the job, and then Hatter balking away, the moment he had the chance and just left her in the hall.

"Alice?" Lord Ascot asked, and Alice shook her head, reminding herself why she was here, and what she was doing.

"Sorry," Alice mumbled, and followed the elder gentlemen up the tall stair case that stood at the edge of the front room. They walked up the rest of the stairs in silence, and finally stopped at a tall door in the mix of a variety of other doors; he stopped and placed a hand forlornly on the wood.

"This was her room?" Alice whispered and when Lord Ascot nodded she took a few more steps towards the door and placed the small brass key into the lock. Instantly the door clicked, and it swung open eerily, with a loud creak, opening a door to a room Alice would never have expected to see herself living in.

"Welcome," Lord Kingsley said, gesturing toward the inside of the dark room. "To your Aunt's old bedroom."

. . .

A few hours earlier.

As she walked the busy streets of London, Alice let her feet find her way back while her memory was committed to the many worries for her own safety and the safety of others in her situation.

Not only did she have to some how prove herself to earn her rightful ownership spot to work on her Lord Ascot's project, she had to make sure that Stayne wouldn't. The there thought of the dark knave directing her father's project wanted to make Alice scream, and then there was the business with her mother she still had to attend to. Where was Margret? Why hadn't she found Alice by now?

She was only a few feet away from her child hood home, and from here she could see that Dr. Peters as walking away from her house without a backwards glance, something that told her that her mother was alone in that house.

Another worry bit at the back of her mind, hat about the Hatter, where was he right now? Wandering the streets looking for a decent cup of tea, trying to, make hates that would probably make a lady faint with its outrageousness or would he be sent to an asylum.

She stopped walking, and her hands turned to fists at her sides. That was another thing she would have to fix. Aunt Imogene had answers Alice needed, and one way or another she was certain that Aunt Imogene would tell her what she needed to hear, or at least that's what she hoped. So that was all she had to do.

Prove herself to Lord Ascot and the other partners of her father's trading company.

Help her mother wake up.

Stop Stayne from taking over the company and bring him back to Underland.

Get answers from Aunt Imogene.

Easy, Alice thought to herself as she stopped in front of her house door. Her hand lingered on the door knob, its cool brass standing to grow warmer under her unsteady finger tips until it was finally the temperature of her hand.

With a sigh and shut eyes, she turned the knob I her hand and pushed it open, running inside before she could doubt herself and shutting the door behind her. As her breath finally slowed, she opened her eyes slowly, and nearly shut them again when her eyes followed the familiar pictures and drapes her mother had put up a life time ago. With another uneasy breath, she took a few steeps into her house, eyes never lingering on something for too long and finally stopping at a single dark brown door where her mother lay sleeping behind.

With another deep breath, Alice suddenly found herself the door in a blink of an eye and pushing the door open, not ready to see what lay beyond.

The bedroom that her mother had always stayed in was now more barren and stark, and in the heart of it, lay her unmoving mother. Her light white hair cascaded around the pillow freely, and her eyes were shut. Mrs. Kingsley's skin was much paler, and more drawn then Alice had ever seen it and for the first time in a long time, Alice felt herself realize how much she truly cared for her mother.

Alice ran towards her mother's bed side, kneeling next to her and grabbing her mother's unmoving hand, stroking it as softly as possible while tears threatened to break through her eyes.

"I'm here, mother." She whispered, taking shallow hiccupping breaths. "I'm finally here."

But her mother didn't move, she just kept breathing as shallow as possibly and Alice felt her cheeks grow wetter while the tears started to over lap.

"Mother, please." She whispered, starting to sniffle. "Please, wake up. I know you needed me, so I'm here. Please, mother, please wake up."

More silence.

"Please," Alice begged. "Please Mama, it's me. It's your daughter, Alice."

Alice hadn't called her mother mama since she was nine years old, and calling her that now just made the realization of her mother's condition worse and every tear, every emotion and every pain Alice held back, finally broke through and she cried.

. . .

A few hours' later Lord Ascot found her, crying at her mother's bed side and begging for her to please wake up. After he put his arms around her and pulled her into his tight embrace, he promised her that she didn't have to stay with here with her mother like this, and Alice could do nothing more to just nod into his already tear stained shirt and sob.

Depressing, very depressing but I like how she's staying with Lord Ascot now, maybe more drama with Hamish perhaps? Only time will tell, please review!